470 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



could l)e lifted up l)y a corner without causing any separation. They 

 were composed of a mixture of a coarse kind of wool, with \-ery fine 

 long hair, capable of being spun into yarn. This gave me reason to 

 believe, that their woollen clothing might in part be composed of this 

 material mixed with a finer kind of wool from some other animal, as 

 their garments were all too fine to be manufactured from the coarse 

 coating of the dog alone. The abundance of these garments amongst 

 the few people we met wnth, indicates the animal from whence the 

 raw material is procured, to be very common in this neighborhood; 

 but as the}' have no one domesticated excepting the dog, their supply 

 of wool for their clothing can only l)e obtained by hunting the wild 

 creature that produces it; of which we could not obtain the least 

 information." Elsewhere he mentions a deer "they had killed on the 

 island, and from the numlier of persons that came from thence, the 

 major part of the remaining inhabitants of the \'illage, with a great 

 number of their dogs, seemed to have been engaged in the chase," 

 this near Admiralty Inlet. Farther up Puget Island, 48° 2|'N, 237° 

 57|^'W, at a large village " they were met by upwards of two hundred 

 [Indians], some in their canoes with their families, and others walking 

 along the shore, attended by about forty dogs in a dro\e, shorn close 

 to the skin like sheep [this in June]" {Ibid., p. 284). 



Hamilton Smith (1840) who, in addition to Vancou\er's account, 

 had information from an Indian who had resided two years at 

 Nootka, speaks of it as a large dog, " with pointed upright ears, docile, 

 but chiefly \aluable on account of the immense load of fur it bears on 

 the back, of white, and brown, and black colovirs, but having the 

 woolly proportion so great and fine, that it may well be called a fleece." 



Notwithstanding Smith's assertion as to the " brown and black 

 colours" of this dog, it is not at all certain that this was the usual case. 

 Suckley (1860, p. 112) says positively that "all the Clallam dogs 

 that I saw were pure white; but they have the sharp nose, pointed 

 ear, and hang-dog, thicAash appearance of other Indian dogs." Gibbs 

 also {Ibid.) mentions their whiteness only, and adds that the very 

 soft hair is sheared like the wool of sheep, and made into blankets, 

 though at that time, 1860, it was "generally intermixed with the 

 ravellings of old English blankets to facilitate twisting with [?into] 

 yarn." 



Lord (1866) further remarks that this white, long-haired dog was 

 kept by only a few coast tribes near Vancouver. The dogs were 

 confined "on islands to prevent their extending or escaping," and it 

 differed "in cAery specific detail from all* the other breeds of dogs 



