1778. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 295 



It may also be presumed that they feed upon other 

 sea-animals, such as seals, sea-otters, and whales ; 

 not only from the skins of the two first being fre- 

 quent amongst them, but from the great number of 

 implements of all sorts intended to destroy these 

 different animals, which clearly points out their de- 

 pendance upon them ; though perhaps they do not 

 catch them in great plenty at all seasons, which 

 seemed to be the case while we lay there, as no great 

 number of fresh skins, or pieces of the flesh, were 

 seen. 



The same might perhaps be said of the land-ani- 

 mals, which, though doubtless the natives sometimes 

 kill them, appeared to be scarce at this time ; as we 

 did not see a single piece of the flesh belonging to 

 any of them ; and though their skins be in tolerable 

 plenty, it is probable that many of these are procured 

 by traffic from other tribes. Upon the whole, it 

 seems plain, from a variety of circumstances, that 

 these people procure almost all their animal food from 

 the sea, if we except a few birds, of which the gulls 

 or sea-fowls, which they shoot with their arrows, are 

 the most material. 



As the Canadian pine-branches and sea-grass, on 

 which the fish-roe is strewed, may be considered as 

 their only winter vegetables \ so, as the spring ad- 

 vances, they make use of several others as they come 

 in season. The most common of these, which we 

 observed, were two sorts of liliaceous roots, one 

 simply tunicated, the other granulated upon its sur- 

 face, called mahkatte and koohquoppa, which have a 

 mildish sweetish taste, and are mucilaginous, and eaten 

 raw. The next, which they have in great quantities, 

 is a root called aheita, resembling in taste our liquo- 

 rice ; and another fern root, whose leaves were not 

 yet disclosed. They also eat, raw, another small, 

 sweetish, insipid root, about the thickness of sarsa- 

 parilla ; but we were ignorant of the plant to which 

 it belongs, and also of another root, which is very 



u 4f 



