Fifteen miles west of Masset the ocean indents the land for about
thirteen miles from eight miles to one-eighth of a mile in width
forming what is known as Virago Sound and Naden Harbor, the latter
being the most accessible and safest anchoring ground for vessels on
the north shore of the island. Into this harbor flows the Naden River,
the second largest stream of the Queen Charlotte group. From Massett
Inlet touching at the abandoned village of Yan situated at its
entrance, we proceeded to those waters and advanced ten miles up the
Naden River three miles by canoe and thence on foot through a thick
forest of spruce and cedar with a dense undergrowth of intertwined
salal, salmon, whortleberry and other bushes. Bear tracks and traps
were numerous, but no game was started except grouse, which were very
tame and plentiful. Night overtook us several miles from camp, wet to
the skin and without blankets! But further progress in the darkness
being impossible, we built a roaring fire at the base of a great
spruce tree, and lay down until daylight. The following night
occupying one of the three habitable houses in the old village of
Kung, situated at the entrance of the harbor, we found Chinese
pottery, and in the burying ground the largest carved figures of men
we had seen, about seven feet in height.
_Around North Island into Cloak and all its other bays, visiting the
deserted villages of Kioosta Yakh and Henslung._
Thirty-five miles further, stopping _en route_ to examine the old
village of Yatz and the Yalan River, brought us to the extreme
northern land of the Queen Charlotte Islands, North Island. Here
Capt. Marchand lay with his ships trading with the natives nearly one
hundred years ago. The Hydahs were then at least ten times their
present numbers, swarming in the waters and on the shores around the
villages of Kioosta, Yakh and Tadense, where now only carved poles,
houses in ruins, and numerous graves attest their former
greatness. Two Indian dogs were the sole occupants of the fishing and
hunting village of Tadense, at the time of our arrival. They had been
left behind by sea otter hunters, with an abundant supply of whale
blubber--but were so lonesome that they followed us for a long
distance along the shore, evidently for the purpose of being taken
into our canoe.
A beautiful clear, still day, favored the circumnavigation of North
island, and the careful examination of its coast line. A thick forest
of spruce of small growth covers its entire area, down to its rocky
shores, which are generally low, though rising to bold perpendicular
bluffs from 50 to 200 feet in height at North Point and around Cloak
Bay, the highest elevation on the island not exceeding 400 feet above
the sea. There are four small bays on its north-eastern side, from one
to two miles in depth, open to easterly winds, with fine sandy beaches
at their heads where the remains of former habitations were
visible. Cloak Bay, a much larger indentation on the south-western
shore, is exposed to westerly storms. The safest anchorage these
waters afford is found in a little cove on the south shore of the
island between Cloak Bay and the village of Henslung.
Parry Passage, which separates North Island from Graham is about a
mile and a half in width, though the ship channel--very rapid except
at flood tide--is narrowed by reefs, and Lucy Island, to less than two
thousand feet. Camping at the deserted village of Yakh, near Kioosta,
we found large beds of strawberry vines of most luxuriant growth, and
carvings of male figures complete.