22    .       i      THE INLAND SEA.
pers and a few provisions, when the Saranac sank 60 fathoms deep, and the crew camped on shore while a small boat went to Nanaimo for help. In 1882 the U. S. S. Wachusett ventured within Yaculta's realm too late, was seized by the demon, drawn down in a big eddy and hurled against the rock with such force that its false keel was entirely torn away. In'1883 the little coasting steamer Grappler, returning with the pack and crew from northern canneries, took fire as it entered the Narrows. The hemp rudder-ropes burned; the frantic passengers leaped overboard as the boat careened and whirled in the rapids; the captain was sucked down in an eddy with his life-preserver belted on, and few escaped. The rings of floating kelp that drift in the race-way are said to be the queues of the 70 Chinese lost with the Grappler. The Norwegian Malstrom, lying between the most southerly islands of the Loffoden group, attains a speed of 6 knots an hour, only when a westerly gale aids the tide: and the greater Salstrom in behind Tromso has but a little stronger current at the ebb.
The Head of Vancouver Island.
Johnstone. Strait, 55 miles in length, and Broughton Strait, 14 miles in length, varying from I to 2 miles in width, continue the double panorama of forested slopes and bold mountain walls.
The Alert Bay cannery, on the S. side of Cormorant Island, has drawn a village of 150 Kwakiutl Indians from the abandoned village of Cheslakee, at the mouth of the Nimpkish River. Missionaries have not been able to do anything with these people. The most southerly totem-pole, and the only one known to have been erected on the coast within ten years, is to be seen in front of the chief's house at Alert Bay. The graveyard is most interesting, with painted boxes, carved poles, many flags and streamers. The eccentric fashions in head-flattening ceased with the Salish people at the line of Cape Mudge, and the Kwakiutl cranium was elongated, and drawn up into pyramidal shape. A few very aged people show the peculiar shapes of skull once in vogue, and fine specimens have been obtained from graves. The Alert Bay Indians will give the old peace and festival dances in costume, if a sufficient purse is made up by their white visitors.
Fort Rupert, an old H. B. Co. post, is in Beaver Harbour, 9 miles beyond Broughton Strait. The fort was built in 1849, and strongly defended because of the natives near it and the frequent visits of the Haidas and northern tribes. There was a heavy earthquake shock in August, 1866, and in 1867 the ranche was bombarded byH. B. M. S. Clio until the tribe surrendered some hidden murderers. Since enthen the wakiutls have been peaceable and their annals eventless. The young