30 



THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 



durin&quot;- the summer and fall, but the Indians rarely attack them except when they 

 come in shore to feed, which they do at certain times. They are easily seen hy 

 the long dorsal fin projecting above the water, and, as they appear to be quite 

 sluggish in their movements, are readily killed with harpoons or lances. The 

 flesh is never eaten. 



A fish of the Anarrhichfliys tribe is frequently killed during the summer 

 months at low tide among the rocks. This is called the &quot; doctor fish&quot; by the 

 Indians, and is never eaten except by some medicine-man who wishes to increase 

 his skill in pharmacy. 



Of the porpoise family there are three varieties in the waters of Fuca Strait. 

 The large black kind called by the Makahs a-ikh-pet hl ; white fin porpoise, called 

 kwak-watl, and the &quot; puffing pig,&quot; tsailt h-ko. These arc killed with harpoons of 

 a smaller size than those used for whales, and are highly esteemed as food. 



Seals also abound. The sea-lion, the largest variety, is called a-ka-wad-dish ; 

 the fur-seal, kat-hla-dos, and the hair-seal, kas-cho-we. The skin of the hair-seal 

 is always taken off whole, and, after the head and feet have been removed and the 

 orifices firmly secured, it is blown full of air and dried with the hair side in. This 

 is the buoy used for the whale fishery, and is usually painted on the outside with 

 rude devices in red vermilion or ochre. The skins of the fur-seal are sold to the 

 whites. The sea otter, ti-juk, is very rarely found around the cape, but is plentiful 

 further down the coast in the vicinity of Point Grenville. During the summer 

 of 1864 the fur-seals were more numerous in Fuca Strait than they had been for 

 many years, and great numbers were taken by the Indians. Sometimes they kill 

 seals with spears ; but the common mode is to shoot them with guns. The flesh 

 of all the species is eaten. There are several deep caverns in the cliffs at Cape 

 Flattery in which the seals congregate during the breeding season. At such times 

 the Indians go in with a torch and club, and kill numbers by knocking them on 

 the head. 



The ease with which these Indians can obtain their subsistence from the ocean 

 makes them improvident in laying in supplies for winter use, except of halibut; 

 for, on any day in the year when the weather will permit, they can procure, in a 

 few hours, provisions enough to last them for several days. 



TRADE. The Makahs, from their peculiar locality, have been for many years the 

 medium of conducting the traffic between the Columbia lliver and Coast tribes 

 south of Cape Flattery, and the Indians north as far as Nootka. They are emphati 

 cally a trading, as well as a producing people ; and in these respects are far superior 

 to the Clallams and other tribes on Fuca Strait and Puget Sound. Before the 

 white men came to this part of the country, and when the Indian population on 

 the Pacific coast had not been reduced in numbers as it has been of late years, they 

 traded largely with the Chinooks at the mouth of the Columbia, making excursions 

 as far as the Kwinaiult tribe at Point Grenville, where they met the Chinook 

 traders ; and some of the more venturesome would even continue on to the Columbia, 

 passing through the Chihalis country at Gray s Harbor and Shoalwater Bay. The 

 Chinooks and Chihalis would in like manner come north as far as Cape Flattery; 

 and these trading excursions were kept up pretty regularly, with only the inter- 



