Nearly all of the choicest varieties of fish found in this region
abound in the waters traversed. There are several halibut banks
besides those located on the charts, where the Indians obtain the most
abundant supplies of these, their principal article of food.
On the day of our arrival at Ninstints, the Indians returned with a
large number caught upon banks opposite the central portion of the
western shore of Provost Island. There are also banks off Sand Spit
Point and Skedance. During the present spring, the Indians have caught
a considerable number of black cod opposite Skidegate Channel, and
also off the abandoned village of Kisson, on the north-west coast of
Moresby Island. The waters just outside the entrance to Skidegate
Inlet are the greatest known resort of the dog-fish on the coast; the
only place where they are caught continuously from spring until fall
in large numbers.
The extraction of their oil by the Skidegate Oil Company, to the
amount of 35,000 to 40,000 gallons annually, give a profitable
employment to a large number of Indians during the summer months.
We found Chief Skidegate and about twenty of his people catching their
spring supply of a very fine small salmon, in the river flowing into
Copper Bay, and met Chief Skedance _en route_ to a river flowing from
the north side of Lyell Island into Cumshewa Inlet, for the same
purpose. There is also a salmon stream emptying into that inlet on the
north side near Conglomerate Point.
Upon one of the streams discharging into Hutton Inlet (which I named
Portage Creek, from the fact that in former times when the natives
were much more numerous, they sometimes carried their canoes across
the island to Bobson Inlet), there was a stone dam, evidently built
for salmon traps. We also saw where bear had eaten salmon near its
banks.
Enormous quantities of mussels of great size, some measuring eight and
ten inches in length, covered the shores in many places, and round
clams are also abundant.