The tradition of the origin of their tribes, existing amongst some of the Indians of British Columbia, appears to be a curious confusion of the Bible histories taught them by the Romish priests, who have been established amongst them for upwards of a century. For the following version we are indebted to Mr. Greville Mathew, registrar of the colony:--A race of men existed upon the earth at the time when a great flood came. It rained day and night week after week. The waters rose rapidly, so that all were drowned except one man. He made haste to reach higher ground, and ascended a lofty hill. Still it rained ceaselessly, the waters covered the face of the land, and followed this last Indian relentlessly as he retreated higher and higher up the mountain side. At length he gained the very summit, and as he sat and watched, the pursuing floods continued to approach. In hopeless despair he prayed to the Great Spirit, who responded to his prayer by changing the lower half of his body into stone, so that, when the advancing waters surged up to him, he remained unmoved. They rose to his waist, and then the rains ceased and the floods began to subside. Although delighted with his unexpected escape, the solitary Indian was oppressed with dismay by the reflection that he was the only survivor, and in his distress again prayed to the Great Spirit to grant him a “Klootcheman,” or squaw. He then fell asleep, and after a time awaking, found his lower limbs restored to flesh and bone, and a beautiful “Klootcheman” by his side. From this pair sprang the Indian tribes in British Columbia. This is a striking instance of a fusion of the story of the creation with that of the deluge; originally derived, no doubt, from the early Romish missionaries, but by lapse of time having passed into a tradition of the tribes, and suggests a source of error affecting philology. A fearful mortality has prevailed amongst them since the advent of the whites, 300 having died in the neighbourhood of Kamloops alone from small-pox the previous year. Their curious custom of leaving their dead unburied, laid out in the open air, with all their property around them, we observed on our journey to Kamloops, when, as the reader may remember, we discovered many victims to the ravages of the pestilence. Other diseases have been almost equally fatal, and before many years, the once numerous natives of this country, although apparently easily susceptible of a certain civilisation, will have diminished to a very small company.