KOOTANIE AND OTHER CANOES. '255 



rush mats, but the wealthier ones have the skin 

 lodge shown in the illustration.* These are by 

 far the best lodges used. The poles are covered 

 with the skins of either deer or buffalo, sewed 

 together with tendon, and the top is constructed 

 to move round in accordance with the wind, thus 

 avoiding the blinding effects of the wood smoke. 

 The fire is placed on the ground in the centre 

 of the lodge, and the inmates squat round it, or 

 when sleeping arrange themselves like the spokes 

 in a wheel, their feet to the fire and their heads 

 towards the sides of the lodge. A good skin lodge 

 is worth 50 dollars, 101. The reader will get a 

 clearer idea of the rush and skin lodge by com- 

 paring the lodge shown in the sketch of Symuk- 

 wateen with the three shown in the illustration 

 ' Indian Lodges.' 



The canoes also are of various kinds ; the canoe 

 used by the Kootanies, described in a preceding 

 chapter, is the general form of the bark canoe 

 employed on all the rivers inland ; on the coast and 

 up the Fraser River the canoes are all dug-outs, 

 that is, made from a solid piece of wood hollowed 

 and shaped to the desired pattern. The Fraser 

 canoe has the bow and stern different to the canoes 

 used by the Van Island Indians. These again 



* Vide illustration: ludiau Lodges. 



