THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 37 



grease. The joints are by this method perfectly matched, and so neat as to be 

 water tight without any calking. The head -and stern pieces being fastened on, 

 the whole of the inside is then chipped over again, and the smaller and more 

 indistinct the chisel marks are, the better the workmanship is considered. Until 

 very recently it was the custom to ornament all canoes, except the small ones, with 

 rows of the pearly valve of a species of sea-snail. These shells are procured in 

 large quantities at Nittinat and Clyoquot, and formerly were in great demand as 

 an article of traffic. They are inserted in the inside of the edge of the canoe by 



Fig. 18. 



Canoe showing method of soarpliiug. 



driving them into holes bored to receive them. But at presen^ they are not much 

 used by the Makahs, for the reason, I presume, that they are continually trading off 

 their canoes, and find they bring quite as good a price without these ornaments as 

 with them. I have noticed, however, among some of the Clallams, who are apt to 

 keep a canoe much longer than the Makahs, that the shell ornaments are still used. 

 When the canoe is finished it is painted inside with a mixture of oil and red ochre. 

 Sometimes charcoal and oil are rubbed on the outside, but more commonly it is 

 simply charred by means of long fagots of cedar splints, set on fire at one end like 

 a torch, and held against the side of the canoe. The surface is then rubbed smooth 

 with a wisp of grass or a branch of cedar twigs. When the bottom of the canoe 

 gets foul from long use, it is dried and charred by the same process. 



The small canoes sold to the white people as curiosities are made from aider ; they 

 vary in size, from two to three feet in length ; but they are not good models of the 

 great canoes, the head and stern pieces being too large in proportion to the whole, 

 and generally the breadth is too great. Still they afford an idea of the general 

 form. These miniature boats are usually painted in a fanciful style according to 

 the taste of the maker. Some have in them grotesquely carved figures resembling 

 men in various attitudes, but these do not really represent anything that may be 

 recognized as a custom peculiar to canoe service. I have seen one with the effigy 



Fig. 19. 



Clyoquot paddle. 



of a man on horseback standing in it, a sight that of course was never seen. Not 

 only are there no horses at Cape Flattery, but it is quite impossible for a man on 

 horseback to get into, and stand in, one of these canoes. I have seen others with 

 figures of owls, eagles, and bears in them. The Indians assured me they were 

 merely fancy work, and I mention the fact lest any one seeing these rude carvings 

 elsewhere, might be led to suppose that they were seriously designed to represent 



