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ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. Hat 
pose was drawn from the salmon much as one draws off a tight-fitting 
glove that will not come off without being turned inside out. It was 
then carefully cleaned by rubbing with dry punk-wood, after which it 
was rubbed with deer or mountain-sheep suet. The skin was then ready, 
and was turned right side out ; the oil was poured in and the mouth securely 
fastened. In the meantime the flesh of the salmon had not been 
neglected. After the oil had been skimmed off, the water was strained 
away and the remains worked up and kneaded into balls and put in the 
sun todry. While drying it was occasionally smelt to see that it was 
sweet and devoid of flavour. After a time it was squeezed and washed 
and kneaded again and put to dry once more. When quite dry and free 
from all smell it was broken up and rubbed fine between the hands till 
it took on the appearance of flour. Some of this was then placed in the 
bottom of a birch-bark basket, and on this were laid the bottles of oil ; 
and when the basket was full more of the salmon flour was spread over 
the top and down the sides until the bottles were encased and buried in 
it. The whole was then stowed away for winter consumption. In addi- 
tion to this way of preserving the oil, they had another way of treating 
it. A kind of butter was manufactured from it by mixing it with equal 
quantities of the best kidney suet, taken from the deer or, preferably, 
from the mountain sheep. The oil and suet were boiled up together, 
thoroughly mixed, and then set to cool. When cool the compound had 
the consistency of butter, and was esteemed a great delicacy among the 
natives. It was eaten, among other things, with the compressed cakes 
which they made from the service (amalanchier) and other berries, of 
which great quantities grow in their region. Only the wealthier class 
could afford food of this kind. Besides venison and fish, wild fruit of all 
such kinds as grew in their neighbourhood and was edible, and roots and 
many kinds of herbs, were eaten. As Dr. G. M. Dawson has given a list 
of these, with their botanical names, and has also described with some 
detail their method of preparing them in his ‘Notes on the Shuswap 
People of British Columbia,’ it will be unnecessary for me to enumerate 
them here. 
Utensils, 
For boiling their food the N’tlaka’pamug always used basket kettles 
made like their other basketry from the split roots of the cedar.1 These 
roots are sometimes dyed red and black, and very beautiful patterns are 
made from the three different colours. According to my informant, the 
red dye was obtained from the bark of the alder-tree, and the dark stain 
was obtained by soaking the roots in black slime or mud.? So skilfully 
' Dr. G. M. Dawson, in his ‘Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia,’ 
tells us that these baskets were made from roots of the spruce, and Dr. Boas, in 
his Report on the Shuswaps, informs us that the basketry of the Shuswaps and 
N'tlaka'‘pamug was made from the roots of the white pine. I cannot say what 
material the Shuswaps constructed their baskets from, but if my informant is 
correct, the N’tlaka’pamuq always used the root of the cedar; and I know no better 
authority among the Thompson Indians than Chief Mischelle, of Lytton, from whom 
to obtain information of this kind. [As the N’tlaka’pamug were pre-eminent in 
basket-making, it is possible that the information gained by Mr. Hill-Tout may be 
accepted as correct, although the cedar (Zhuya) is not abundant in the Thompson 
River country.—G. M. D.] 
* According to Dr. Boas the black dye was obtained from the fern root. It is 
possible it was got in both ways. 
