228 STRANGE ALTERATION OF TEETH. 
Growing in the most arid localities, it flowers 
beautifully in early summer; but its foliage soon 
withers under the scorching rays of the sun as 
the season advances. The other ‘bitter root,’ 
the Tra-chin of the Carriers, is the bulb of the 
Lilium Canadense, flourishing in moist alluvial 
soils. I do not recognise the other varieties men- 
tioned in this article under the names given. 
Q. Have they any artificial way of modifying 
the form and appearance of the teeth? 
A. (Anderson.)—No. At least not that I am 
aware of. Still they unconsciously do so. In 
the sandy districts the split salmon, in the pro- 
cess of drying, retains a portion of the comminuted 
sand driven by the winds. Hence in the process 
of mastication the teeth of the consumers are 
mechanically worn down. This to a transient 
observer might appear to be the effect of art, but 
it isnot so. About the Dalles on the Columbia 
River (where, as you know, it is sandy enough) 
the natives before mid-age have the teeth worn 
nearly to the gums. Higher up, about Walla- 
walla and other places, the effect is not so con- 
spicuous ; not that the country is less sandy, but 
that the natives subsist more upon roots, and 
indeed have fewer salmen to eat. Among the 
Canadian voyagers of New Caledonia the same 
