SIR, - I have the honour to forward my annual report to the 30th of June, with tabular statement and list of Government property.

Agency. - The West Coast Agency extends from Otter Point to Cape Cook, comprising two hundred miles of the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Reserves. - There are eighteen tribes in this agency. They have one hundred and fifty reserves and fishing stations, aggregating twelve thousand four hundred and twenty acres. There are two large reserves in Barclay Sound, one at Alberni, belonging to the Tseshahts, containing one thousand and thirty acres, and the other at Numakamis, belonging to the Oiahts, containing, one thousand seven hundred acres. The acreage of the other reserves ranges from two hundred to two hundred and fifty acres. These tribes all speak the same language with dialectic differences, and have been called the Aht nation.
ALBERNI RESERVES.

Location and Area. - The main village of the Tsesbaht tribe is situated in the lower corner of No. 1 Reserve, on the west bank of the Somass River. This reserve contains one thousand and thirty acres, the greater part of which is good land, but with considerable timber on it. In the south-west corner is a lake about eighty acres in extent, round which wild hay is cut. The main village of the Opitchesaht tribe, Ali-ahs-win-iss, is situated on the east bank of the Somass River, a quarter of a mile from the town of Alberni, the main road running along the bank of the river in front of the village, and consists of ninety-six acres.

Vital Statistics. - The Tseshaht tribe numbers one hundred and fifty, consisting of forty men, forty-eight women and sixty-two children and young people. There have been thirteen deaths in this band during the last year, eight adults and five children, ten of which were from consumption. There were seven births. The Opitchesaht tribe number sixty-one, consisting of eighteen men, twenty-four women and nineteen children, with five deaths and three births, making a decrease of six in one tribe and three in the other.

Health and Sanitary Condition. - In the month of September there was an epidemic of chicken-pox among these bands, which also attacked the pupils at the girls' home. I attended to the sick myself, and there were no deaths from this cause; of the eighteen for the past year at Alberni thirteen were from tubercular diseases. All the Alberni Indians have been vaccinated except the infants. Sanitary precautions are enforced as much as possible, the Indians being supplied with disinfectants when necessary, and houses and premises are generally kept clean.

Occupation. - The Alberni Indians, except a few old men, all seal, and were the first sealers on the coast, the best sealing grounds being formerly off Barclay Sound, and these Indians the most proficient with the spear. They move down to the islands in Barclay Sound early in the spring, where the men seal on fine days and fish, the women gathering in a plentiful harvest of shell fish, herrings and herring spawn. Since gold prospectors have been at work at Alberni, these Indians get some employment in carrying men by canoe up and down the canal and about Barclay Sound. They own twenty horses, which