42 CRUISE l)F THE STEAMER C'ORWIN. 



vicinity of the lakes can be reached; but no direct communication by water exists, and I am 

 inclined to think that if any outlet to these lakes exists, it flows northward into the Nolitak. 

 The country lying to the northward of these lakes is mountainous, and it is likely that many 

 small lakes exist in this region. When ti'aveling to the head of the river during the winter 

 the route generally pursued is to the southern side of the Kowak, where the mountains are less 

 precipitous and the trail less nlistiiicted by thickets and timbered land. On the noi'th side a 

 few summer portages exist for journeying to the vicinity of Lake Car-loog-ah-look-tah; but as 

 they art' seldom used I could not oljtain any detiiiite information in regard tn tlie character of 

 the country tlirough which they lay. 



'I'he next day (July 2U} the river fell so rapidly that I decideil to wait until i1 began to rise 

 again liefoi'e jjroceeding. The day was spent in getting a set of observations and in seeking 

 informal ion in general of the Indians. 



At this village there were eight women, ten children, and only one man. The husbands 

 of the women were away in the mountains hunting deer, and the solitary rejiresentative of the 

 sterner sex, a decrepit old fellow, sixty or seventy years of age, seemed to have some difficulty 

 ill holding his own against such odds. 



The hshing season being at its height, the women were busy all day and until it l)ecanie too 

 dark at night, hauling their seines. A large fire was kept up, in which round stones, two and 

 a half to four inches in diameter, were heated red hot. and when a meal was desired they were 

 thrown into a tub of water, rapidly raising its temperature to the boiling point. A half-dozen 

 fish were then put in, and in a few moments the natives gathered round the fire, and after the 

 woman who superintended the cooking had removed the fish from the tub and placed them 

 in a large wooden tray, they fell to without ceremony and ate until the supply was exhausted. 

 In a short while another haul of the seine would be made and another feast inaugurated, so tluit 

 one sometimes wonders if it is possible to ajjpease their appetites. 



The Indians of my party took an active part in eating the fish after they had been cooked: 

 l)nt 1 never saw one assist in their capture liy so much as helping the women shove their boats 

 off the beach. They would squat lazily down on tlieir haunclies and look on with ludicrous 

 impassiveness while the women loaded their lioats with the seine or haiiled it in heavily 

 weighted with fish. 



Tlie children assist the women, and the scene when a big haul is made is jiirluresque in the 

 extreme. A half dozen little naked savages, up to their waists in the water and struggling 

 frantically with refractory salmon and white-fish, almost as large as themselves, was an event 

 of frequent occurrence. 



The fi.sli which are not immediately eaten are cut open and the entrails reniove<l. and are 

 then hung up to diy on long poles placed hoi'izontally <in u])right su])ports along the lieach. 

 The head is removed and the roe is dried sejjarately. Fish are sometimes, though not com- 

 monly, hin-ied without having been previously cleaned, and allowed to ])ecome ])utrid before 

 eating. This form of diet is esteemed a luxury, liut owing to the trouble of trans])orting it 

 when Iraveling it is not so common as the dried fish. I attenuated to eat some of the buried 

 fisli. lull, in si)ite of the fact that I was vei'y hungry at the time, I could not retain it on my 

 stomach, and I am satisfied that a white man would starve before his stomach could be edu- 

 culed uj), or down, to this re](ulsive iliet. In addition to the drying-poles, eacli fishing village 

 eonlains a stpiare house, ten or twelve feet high, made of piles and covei'cd liy small jjoles. 

 VVIuMi a, sullicient number of lisli have been dried on the poles, they are ])Ul in this house and 

 thoroughly smoked, and are llieii i-eady for storing away for winter use. 



The seines ai-e (•le\-erly made lioin the inside bark of the willow and range from thirty to 

 sixty feet in length by Iniir to six feel in width. Pieces of deer antlei-s are commonly used as 

 sinkei-s foi- 1 he seines. In many jjlaces along the river the Tjanks are filled with a tough fibrous 

 root, from which is niannraci ured a most admirable substitute for twine. Seines made of this 

 material are accounte(l siipeiior to nny others, and from my experience with one which we had 

 bidught from the shi]i. I do not thiid\ a comjiarison with tlie native article would show that 

 civilization had made any impi'ovenient in this direction, except perhaps in point of weight. 



