NORTHWESTERN AMERICA. 217 



the other, like berths in a ship. Their canoes, which are made of 

 hollowed trees, are sometimes of great size. They are of elegant 

 shape, long, narrow, and sharp, and are light enough to live in a 

 rough sea, where a boat would be swamped; but they require con- 

 stant watchfulness, to guard against their upsetting. The habits of 

 the Chinooks, like those of the northern coast-tribes, show a people 

 accustomed to derive their subsistence from the sea, and averse to 

 wandering upon land. They differ widely, in this respect, from the 

 Californians, who subsist upon acorns and the seeds of plants, build 

 temporary huts of brushwood and straw, and are constantly on the 

 move from place to place. 



7. KALAPUYA. 



The Kalapuya (or Callapooyahs) possess the valley of the Willam- 

 met* above the Falls, the most fertile district of Oregon. It is 

 included between the two ridges, known as the coast range and the 

 California Chain, and is watered by numerous tributaries of the main 

 stream. The natives were formerly numerous, but have been reduced 

 by sickness to about five hundred. This rapid diminution will render 

 nugatory the efforts of the American missionaries to improve their 

 condition, in which, from the habits and character of the natives, 

 there would otherwise have been some reason to hope for success. 

 The Kalapuya, like the Umkwa, hold a position intermediate between 

 the wild wandering tribes of the interior, and the debased, filthy, and 

 quarrelsome natives of the coast. They are more regular and quiet 

 than the former, and more cleanly, honest, and moral, than the latter. 

 They shift their quarters at certain seasons for the purpose of pro- 

 curing food ; but could their wants be otherwise supplied, they might 

 easily be induced, as some of them have already been, to adopt a 

 fixed residence. The progress of disease, however, and the influx of 

 foreign population will soon supersede the necessity of any further 

 labors for their benefit. 



* As this word has been written and pronounced by foreigners in various ways, it may 

 be well to note that the true orthography, according to the native pronunciation, would be 

 Wulamt, in two syllables, with the accent on the last. 



55 



