154 



Mensies' Journal. 



Pennant, 

 Arctic 

 Zoology, I. 



Menzles' MS. 

 June 16, 1793. 



Mozino, 

 Noticias 

 de Nutka. 



Their range extended from the entrance of the Strait 

 of Fuca to Puget Sound and as far north as Nanaimo. In 

 the greater part of this area they overlapped the region in 

 which the hair of the mountain-goat was used in a similar 

 way. 



Cook thought that the woollen garments noted by him 

 at Nootka were made of the wool of different animals, " as 

 the fox and brown lynx," and it appears from Pennant's 

 note under " Sheep, Argali," in his Arctic Zoology, I., p. 12, 

 that a piece of this cloth was taken back to England, and 

 that the wool resembled that under the hair of the musk-ox, 

 and that it was of a pale-brown colour. This, perhaps, is 

 the earliest suggestion of the mountain-goat, which was not 

 known to be distinct from the mountain-sheep until some 

 years later. Haswell in 1778-9 and Mozino in 1792 also 

 speak of the wool of the mountain-sheep as used in blankets. 

 But the nearest approach to the true nature of the animal 

 source of the wool most commonly used by natives of the 

 North-west Coast was made by Vancouver and Menzies 

 in 1793, when they saw at a village not far from Bella 

 Bella the skins of the animal " from which the fine white 

 wool comes." It had small straight horns and was there- 

 fore supposed to be an unknown goat. The animal at this 

 time was said to be high up in the mountains, but used 

 to come down in winter. Menzies adds that at Nootka 

 and Whannoh (i.e., the Nimpkish village) the natives were 

 ignorant as to the animal " which they procured by barter 

 from the natives inland." (Menzies' Journ., under date 

 June 1 6th, 1793.) It was probably from this locality that 

 Vancouver procured the mutilated skin which Richardson 

 refers to under " Mountain-goat, Capra americana," in his 

 Fauna Boreali-Americana, p. 268. 



Looms. 



Two kinds of loom were used by the natives of the 

 coast visited by Menzies in 1792. The simpler one consists 

 of three sticks, two of which are set up vertically and 

 support the third one in a horizontal position. The warp 

 is fastened to the latter and weaving is carried on from side 

 to side without the use of any other appliance than the 

 fingers. This was well described by Mozino at Nootka and 

 is the same with that used by the Chilcat Indians in the 



