CHAPTER XI. 
THE VI-ARD OR WI-YOT. 
The Viard live on lower Humboldt Bay and Eel River as far up as 
Eagle Prairie. On the north side of Van Dusen’s Fork were the Whil-kut, 
extending down to the confluence of the streams. The Viard, as above 
noted, are very nearly identical in customs and language with the Patawat. 
They appear to have constructed both the conical and the Klamath 
River wigwam of hewn puncheons, in the making of which they displayed 
some ingenuity. They first took elk-horns and rubbed them on stones to 
sharpen them into axes and wedges. Then selecting some fallen redwood 
that was straight and free from knots, with incredible labor they hacked a 
notch a few inches deep and reaching perhaps a third or more of the way 
around the tree. Next they brought the elk-horn wedges into play, with stones 
for beetles, and split off a kind of jacket-slab, long enough for the height 
ot the wigwam, two or three inches in thickness and four or five feet wide. 
A veteran woodman relates that he has seen them of the enormous width 
of seven feet. Of course this puncheon observes the curvature of the tree, 
but on being exposed to the sun for a few days it warps out flat. They 
then dressed it smooth with elk-horn or flint axes, and it was ready for use. 
Very much the same process is said to have been employed on the Klamath. 
If the lodge was conical they could employ slabs of the huge red- 
wood bark; but only puncheons set in the ground would make a shelter 
tolerably secure against the tempestuous winds of Humboldt Bay. For a 
door they take one of these enormous puncheons, and with their elk-horn 
axes perforate a round hole through it, just large enough to admit the 
passage of an Indian on all fours ; and on the inside they frequently place 
a sliding panel, so that the door can be rendered baby-tight on occasion. 
Being notably timid and unskillful in hunting the larger animals they 
depended mainly on snares and traps to supply themselves with game. To 
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