This print is based on a visit Bateman and his wife made to the now empty village of ‘M’imkwamlis on Village Island, which lies off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. Bateman writes, "first the houses on the village outskirts materialized from the mist, then the lonely outline of a frontal pole appeared. These were all that remained of a traditional native house, where a noble family must have lived and held its potlatch feasts.