CANDLE-FISH. 95 



By each fire are four large square boxes, made 

 from the trunk of the pine-tree. A squaw care- 

 fully piles in each box a layer of fish about three- 

 deep, and covers them with cold water. She 

 then puts five or six of the hot stones upon the 

 layers of fish, and when the steam has cleared 

 away, carefully lays small pieces of wood over the 

 stones ; then more fish, more water, more stones, 

 more layers of wood, and so on, until the box is 

 filled. The oil-maker now takes all the liquid from 

 this box, and uses it over again instead of water 

 in filling another box, and skims the oil off as it 

 floats on the surface. 



A vast quantity of oil is thus obtained; often 

 as much as seven hundredweight will be made 

 by one small tribe. The refuse fish are not yet 

 done with, more oil being extractible from them. 

 Built against the pine-tree is a small stage, made 

 of poles, very like a monster gridiron. The re- 

 fuse of the boxes, having been sewn up in porous 

 mats, is placed on the stage, to be rolled and 

 pressed by the arms and chests of Indian women ; 

 and the oil thus squeezed out is collected in 

 a box placed underneath. 



Not only has Nature, ever bountiful, sent an 

 abundance of oil to the redskin, but she actually 

 provides ready-made bottles to store it away in. 



