AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 85 



by cedar withes to the rafters, were hung several 

 hundred salmon, absorbing smoke, carbonic acid gas 

 from the lungs of the human beings beneath, and 

 steam from the cooking that was going on. It is 

 understood that after this process has been prolonged 

 for some weeks these once noble fishes will be fit for 

 the winter food of the Siwash. 



Some of the houses in Chehalis are neat frame 

 cottages ; in fact, it is a better-built town, on the 

 whole, than the village of Harrison River already 

 described ; but these better houses all stand back 

 about a quarter of a mile from the river, and the 

 inhabitants have left them and gone into the "fish- 

 houses," the clapboard structures, on the immediate 

 river bank. Some of these shanties are much larger 

 than the one mentioned above, and in some cases 

 four, five, or even six families hole up in one of 

 these filthy dens during the fish-curing season. 



As a matter of fact, there are salmon of one variety 

 or another in these larger rivers nearly all the year, 

 but sometimes the weather is too cold, too wet, or 

 otherwise too disagreable in winter for the noble red 

 man to fish with comfort, and hence all these prep- 

 arations for a rainy day. After the fishes are cured 

 they are hung up in big out-houses set on posts, or 

 in some cases built high up in the branches of trees, in 

 order to be entirely out of the reach of rats, minks, 

 or other vermin, and the members of the commune 

 draw from the stock at will. The coast Indians live 

 almost wholly on fish, and seem perfectly happy 

 without flesh, vegetables, or bread, if such be not at 

 hand, though they can eat plenty of all these when 

 set before them. If one of them kills a deer he sel- 



