Whether these canoes are like any in Tartary or China or Japan, I do not know. My only quest for special information of that character proved disappointing. One man in a city of British Columbia is said to have studied such matters more deeply and to more purpose than all the others, but those who referred me to him cautioned me that he was eccentric. "You don't know where these Indians came from, eh?" the _savant_ replied to my first question. "Do you know how oyster-shells got on top of the Rocky Mountains? You don't, eh? Well, I know a woman who went to a dentist's yesterday to have eighteen teeth pulled. Do you know why women prefer artificial teeth to those which God has given them? You don't, eh? Why, man, you don't know anything." While we were--or he was--conversing, a laboring-man who carried a sickle came to the open door, and was asked what he wanted. "I wish to cut your thistles, sir," said he. "Thistles?" said the _savant_, disturbed at the interruption. "---- the thistles! We are talking about Indians." Nevertheless, when the laborer had gone, he had left the subject of thistles uppermost in the _savant's_ mind, and the conversation took so erratic a turn that it might well have been introduced hap-hazard into _Tristram Shandy_. "About thistles," said the _savant_, laying a gentle hand upon my knee. "Do you know that they are the Scotchmen's totems? Many years ago a Scotchman, sundered from his native land, must needs set up his totem, a thistle, here in this country; and now, sir, the thistle is such a curse that I am haled up twice a year and fined for having them in my yard." But nearly enough has been here said of the native population. Though the Indians boast dozens of tribal names, and almost every island on the coast and village in the interior seems the home of a separate tribe, they will be found much alike--dirty, greasy, sore-eyed, short-legged, and with their unkempt hair cut squarely off, as if a pot had been upturned over it to guide the operation. The British Columbians do not bother about their tribal divisions, but use the old traders' Chinook terms, and call every male a "siwash" and every woman a "klootchman."