136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



and here I take the liberty to refei* the reader to what 1 have said ot 

 their costumes, their habitations, the implements they use in hunting 

 and fishing, and their divers methods of preserving berries and edible 

 roots. 



The Carriers who, since the advent of the whites, have proved to 

 be the most amenable to civilization, of the four tribes treated of 

 may be said to have been foi-merly the least industrious. Among them, 

 we find no trace of basket work of any kind, and they formerly im- 

 ported from the coast some of the most useful of their woi'king 

 implements such as axes and adzes. Owing to the absence of moun- 

 tain goat in their country, they also depended upon the Sekanais and 

 the Atnas for their supply of spoons and other household utensils 

 which, among the Aborigines, are usually manufactured from the 

 horns of that animal. 



Birch bark was substituted among tliem for willow basket work. 

 They employed it in making vessels or dishes of any size and shape ; 

 the fibrous roots of spruce split in four parts was used in lieu of 

 thread. One kind of these vessels, remarkable by the absence of any 

 seam (the bark being simply folded up on its four corners and so re- 

 tained by a split encircling switch) did service as a kettle or boiler. 

 Tlierein they l)oiled meat or roots as they now do in tin and copper 

 kettles, but with the difference that they had to kee[) it away from 

 tlie flames. They ure still loud in tlieir praise of its usefulness as a 

 rapid boiler. On grand occasions, they were replaced by large s[)ruce 

 bark vessels built on the ground or .square wooden boxes imported 

 from among the Atnas wherein, when filled with water and meat,, 

 heated stones were repeatedly thrown until the meat was boiled. 



Instead of bark vessels, the Chilh;(Otins use spruce root for making 

 neat and sometimes elaborately ornamented baskets and other vessels 

 which are impermeable to watei". Indeed one kind, which may con- 

 tain eight or nine gallons, serves to keep water for household [>urposes. 

 I regret to be unable to minutely describe their method of weaving 

 the spruce splints, not having any of these baskets in my collection 

 of Indian curiosities, and having neglected to watch their mode of 

 working when stationed among them in years past. I had ample? 

 opjjortunities to do so. However, I am stronglj' inclined to believe 



