language affording no appropriate expression. Their language is also peculiar in containing no oaths, or any words expressive of gratitude or thanks.

Their habits are extremely filthy, their persons abounding with vermin, and one of their chief amusements consists in picking these disgusting insects from each others' heads and eating them. On my asking an Indian one day why he ate them, he replied that they bit him and he gratified his revenge by biting them in return. It may naturally be supposed that they are thus beset from want of combs or other means of displacing the intruders; but this is not the case, they pride themselves on carrying such companions about them, and giving their friends the opportunity of amusing themselves in hunting and eating them.

The costume of the men consists of a musk-rat skin robe, the size of one of our ordinary blankets, thrown over the shoulders, without any breech-cloth, moccassins or leggings. Painting the face is not much practised amongst them except on extraordinary occasions, such as the death of a relative, some solemn feast, or going on a war party. The female dress consists of a girdle of cedar bark round the waist, with a dense mass of strings of the same material hanging from it all around and reaching almost to the knees. This is their sole summer habiliment. They, however, in very severe weather add the muskrat blanket. They also make another description of blanket from the skin of the wild goose, which is here taken in great abundance. The skin is stripped from the bird with the feathers on, and cut into strips, which they twist so as to have the feathers outwards. This makes a feathered cord, and is then netted together so as to form a blanket, the feathers filling up the meshes, and rendering it a light and very warm covering. In the summer these are entirely thrown aside, not being in any case worn from feelings of delicacy, and the men go quite naked, though the women always wear the cedar petticoat.

The country which the Chinooks inhabit being almost destitute of furs they have little to trade in with the whites. This, coupled with their laziness--probably induced by the ease with which they procure fish, which is their chief subsistence-prevents their obtaining ornaments of European manufacture, consequently anything of the kind is seldom seen amongst them. They, however, wear long strings of small shells found on the coast called Ioquas, and used by them also

as money.

A great traffic is carried on amongst all the tribes through the medium of these shells, which are found only at Cape Flattery, at the

entrance to the Straits of De Fuca. They are fished up from the bottom of the sea, and are found an inch and a-half to two inches in length; they are white, slender, hollow, and tapering to a point, slightly curved, and about the size of the stem of an ordinary clay tobacco pipe. They are valuable in proportion to their length, and their value increases according to a fixed ratio, forty shells being the standard number required to extend a fathoms' length, which number is in that case equal in value to a beaver's skin, but if thirty-nine be found long enough to make the fathom it would be worth two beaver skins, if thirty-eight three skins, and so on, increasing one beaver skin for every shell less than the standard number.

The Chinooks evince very little taste in comparison with some of the tribes on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, in ornamenting either their persons or their warlike or domestic implements. The only utensils I saw at all creditable to their decorative skill were carved bowls and spoons of horn, and baskets made of roots and grass woven so closely as to serve all purposes of a pail in holding and carrying water. In these they even boil the salmon which constitute their principal food. This is done by immersing the fish in one of the baskets filled with water, into which they throw red hot stones until the fish is cooked, and I have seen fish dressed as expeditiously by them in this way as if done in a kettle over a fire by our own people.

The salmon is taken during the months of June and July in immense numbers in the Columbia river and its tributaries by spearing and with gill nets. They have also a small hand net something like our common landing net, which is used in rapids where the salmon are crowded together and near the surface. These nets are ingeniously contrived, so that when a fish is in them his own struggles loosen a little stick which keeps the mouth of the net open while empty, but which, when the net is full, immediately draws it together like a purse with the weight of the salmon and effectually secures the prey.

The salmon taken during this period of the year are split open and dried in the sun for their winter's supply. I have never seen salt made use of by any tribe of Indians for the purpose of preserving food, and they all evince the greatest dislike to salt meat.

I may here mention a curious fact respecting the salmon of the Columbia river; they have never been known to rise to a fly, although it has been frequently tried by gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, with the very best tackle. The salmon go up the river as far as they possibly can and into all its tributary streams in myriads; it is, however, a well known fact that after spawning they never

return to the sea, but all die in the river; the Columbia is hardly ever free from gill nets, and no salmon has ever been taken returning; and in the fall, wherever still water occurs, the whole place is tainted by their putrid bodies floating in immense masses. I have been obliged to travel through a whole night trying to find an encampment free from their disgusting effluvia.

The Chinooks also catch a considerable number of sturgeon, which here attain to an enormous size, weighing from four to six cwt.; this is done by means of a long-jointed spear handle seventy or eighty feet in length, fitted into, but not actually fastened to a barbed spearhead, to which is attached a line, with this they feel along the bottom of the river, where the sturgeon are found lying at the spawning season. Upon feeling the fish the barbed spear is driven in and the handle withdrawn. The fish is then gradually drawn in by the line, which being very long allows the sturgeon room to waste his great strength, so that he can with safety be taken into the canoe or towed ashore.

ness.

At the mouth of the river a very small fish, about the size of our Sardine, is caught in immense numbers. It is called there Uhlékun, and is much prized on account of its delicacy and extraordinary fatWhen dried this fish will burn from one end to the other with a clear steady light like a candle. The Uhlékuns are caught with astonishing rapidity by means of an instrument about seven feet long; the handle is about three feet, into which is fixed a curved wooden blade about four feet, somewhat the shape of a sabre, with the edge at the back. In this edge, at the distance of an inch and a-half, are inserted sharp bone teeth about an inch long. The Indian standing in the canoe draws this edgeways with both hands, holding it like a paddle, rapidly through the dense shoals of fish which are so thick that almost every tooth will strike a fish. One knock across the thwarts safely deposits them in the bottom of the canoe. This is done with such rapidity that the Indians will not use nets for this description of fishing.

There are few whales now caught on the coast, but the Indians are most enthusiastic in the chase. Upon a whale being seen blowing in the offing they rush down to their large canoes and push off, with ten or twelve men in each. The canoes are furnished with a number of strong seal skin bags filled with air, and made with great care and skill, capable of containing about ten gallons. To each bag is attached a barbed spear-head by a strong string about eight or nine feet long, and in the socket of the spear-head is fitted a handle five or VOL. II-B

six feet in length. Upon coming up with the whale, the barbed heads, with the bags attached, are driven into it and the handles withdrawn. The attack is continually renewed until the whale is no longer able to sink from the buoyancy of the bags, when he is despatched and towed ashore. The blubber of the whale is much prized amongst them, and is cut into strips about two feet long and four inches wide, and eaten generally with their dried fish.

Clams and oysters are very abundant, and seals, wild ducks and geees, are taken in great plenty, but their fishing is so productive that the Indians subsist with little labour. They are also very fond of herrings' roe, which they collect in the following manner :-They sink cedar branches to the bottom of the river, in shallow places, by placing upon them a few heavy stones, taking care not to cover the green foliage, as the fish prefer spawning on anything green, and they literally cover all the branches by next morning with spawn. The Indians wash this off in their water-proof baskets, to the bottom of which the roe sinks; this is squeezed by the hands into little balls and then dried, and is very palatable.

The only vegetables in use amongst the Chinooks are the Camas and Wappattoo. The Camas is a bulbous root much resembling the onion in outward appearance but is more like the potato when cooked and is very good eating. The Wappattoo is somewhat similar but larger and not so dry or delicate in its flavour. They are found in immense quantities in the plains in the vicinity of Fort Vancouver, and in the spring of the year present a most curious and beautiful appearance, the whole surface presenting an uninterrupted sheet of bright ultramarine blue from the innumerable blossoms of these plants. They are cooked by digging a hole in the ground, then putting down a layer of hot stones, covering them with dry grass, on which the roots are placed; they are then covered with a layer of grass, and on the top of this they place earth, with a small hole perforated through the earth and grass down to the vegetables. Into this they pour water, which, reaching the hot stones, forms sufficient steam to completely cook the roots in a short time, the hole being immediately stopped up after the introduction of the water. They often adopt the same ingenious process for cooking fish, meat, and game.

There is another article of food made use of amongst them, which from its disgusting nature I should have been tempted to omit, were it not a peculiarily characteristic trait of the Chinook Indian, both from its extraordinary character, and its use being confined solely to this tribe; it is, however, regarded only as a luxury and not as a general

article of food. The whites have given it the name of Chinook Olives, and it is prepared as follows:-About a bushel of acorns are placed in a hole dug for the purpose close to the entrance of the lodge or hut, and covered over with a thin layer of grass, on top of which is laid about half a foot of earth; every member of the family for the next five or six months regards this hole as the special place of deposit for urine, which is on no occasion to be diverted from its legitimate receptacle. Even should a member of the family be sick and unable to reach it for this purpose, the fluid is carefully collected and carried thither. However disgusting such an cdoriferous preparation would be to people in civilized life the product is regarded by them as the greatest of all delicacies; so great indeed is the fondness they evince for this horrid preparation that even when brought amongst civilized society they still yearn after it and will go any distance to obtain it. A gentleman in charge of Fort George had taken to himself a wife, a woman of this tribe, who of course partook with himself of the best food the Fort could furnish; notwithstanding which, when he returned home one day his nostrils where regaled with a stench so nauseating that he at once enquired where she had deposited the Chinook olives, as he knew that nothing else could poison the atmosphere in such a manner. Fearful of losing her dearly-prized luxury she strenuously denied their possession: his nose however, led him to the place of deposit, and they were speedily consigned to the river. His mortification was afterwards not a little increased by learning that she had purchased the delicacy with one of his best blankets.

During the season the Chinooks are gathering Camas and fishing, they live in lodges constructed by means of a few poles covered with mats made of rushes, which can be easily moved from place to place; but in the villages they build permanent huts of split cedar boards. Having selected a dry place for the village, a hole is dug about three feet deep and about twenty feet square: round the sides of this, square cedar boards are sunk and fastened together with cords and twisted roots, rising about four feet above the outer level; two posts are sunk at the middle of each end with a crutch at top, on which the ridge pole rests, and boards are laid from thence to the top of the upright boards. Fastened in the same manner round the interior are erected sleeping places, one above another, something like the berths in a vessel, but larger. In the centre the fire is made, the smoke of which escapes by means of a hole left in the roof for that purpose. These lodges are filthy beyond description and swarm with vermin. The fire is procured by means of a flat piece of dry cedar, in which a small hol