THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 271) 



Wbeu the salmon or halibut are caught, it is the duty of the women 

 to clean and dry them. The head is cut off, the fish slit down the 

 back, back-bone and entrails removed, and the tail and fins cut off. 

 The cleaned fish is then cut into long flakes, which are hung on a 

 wooden frame, and cured, without salt, either in the sun or by means 

 of a slow fire beneath. Sometimes they are dried in the smoke of the 

 dwellings. The fish when dried are either wrapped in bark or stored 

 in chests or boxes, and stowed for future use out of the reach of the 

 dogs and children. When bear, deer, goats, or other game are killed, 

 the skin is not generally removed from the carcass until most of the 

 flesh has been eaten. In this way the skin forms a wrapper to preserve 

 and protect the flesh. Grease obtained by boiling the meat is skimmed 

 from the surface of the water and esteemed a great delicacy. 



INDUSTRIAL IMPLEMENTS OR TOOLS. 



In general. — Primitive tools were of stone, the most common edged 

 ones beiug of flint, or a peculiar hard green jadeite, or, where possible 

 to obtain it, of jade, which last named they got from the north in trade. 

 Rough tools and implements, such as sledges, hammers, mortars, pes- 

 tles, scrapers, etc., were of igneous rock, roughly carved in the totem 

 of the owner. The knives for more delicate carvings in wood were of 

 coj^per, flint, jade, or the bones of fishes and mammals, the work being 

 smoothed down with shark skin used as a sand-paper. Steel has now 

 been substituted for stone in all of their tools, but the native shape has 

 been in a measure retained. 



Hummers and Sledges. — These were of hard igneous stone, rudely 

 carved, and are used here and there even to this day. Figs. 81, 82, 85, 

 and 86, Plate xxii, represent a variety of these as regards shapes, sizes, 

 and methods of hafting, while Plate xx, Figs. 79, h and c, show a very 

 primitive form of hammer and sledge-head, respectively. 



Adzes. — A variety of adz-blades of a green jade-like stone are shown 

 in Fig. 79, same plate, d, e, and /. Figs. 88 and 89, Plate xxiii, are other 

 varieties of this pick-shaped blade, of which Figs. 90 and 91 show 

 methods of hafting. A more handy variety of adz, for finishing and 

 planing work, is shown in Fig. 79 g, f being a variety of blades as re- 

 gards size. The methods of hafting this flat-shaped blade throughout 

 the northwest coast are shown in Fig. 79 g and Figs. 87, 92, 93, and 94, 

 Plate XXIII. Iron or steel is now substituted for stone, and the favor- 

 ite form is that made by sharpening the end of a broad flat file. Dixon 

 (1787) says the only stone implement he saw amongst the Tlingit and 

 Haida was an adze made of jasper, " the same as those used by the 

 Kew Zealanders."* 



Knives. — Before the introduction of iron the only metal available was 

 copper. This was not used for industrial purposes, as knives, on ac- 



* Dixon, Voyage, p. 224. 



