THE INDIANS OF THE NOETHWEST COAST. 297 



Canoe making. — The primitive tools used in canoe construction are 

 so simple as to excite our surprise. The principal and almost only one 

 used is the adze of some pattern or other shown in Plate xxiii, Figs. 

 92, 93, and 94. The logs for the purpose are usually gotten out in the 

 summer season and rough hewn to somewhat the shape of the canoe in 

 odd hours about the summer camp — the finishing work being left until 

 winter. The trees are generally selected near some watercourse and 

 felled in such a direction as to admit of launching them into tide water. 

 The log is trimmed where felled to rough dimensions, launched, and 

 towed to summer camp, where the preliminary work is done. Often by 

 combined labor numerous logs are gotten out in this way at one time, 

 made into a raft, and by means of sweeps and sails and by dint of 

 working the tides brought to the village or to the neighborhood of the 

 camps. Good trees for canoe purposes are sufficiently rare to make their 

 selection difficult and expensive in both time and labor. The best wood 

 for all purposes is the yellow cedar {Gham(ecyparis Nutkaensis), found on 

 the Queen Charlotte Islands and in spots around the southern Alaska 

 boundary. The smaller canoes are made from the Sitka spruce {Picea 

 ISitdhensis), and the very largest from the giant cedar {Thuja gigantea). 

 The whole process of canoe construction may be briefly described as 

 follows: The tree is felled with an ax (formerly stone ones were used). 

 The trimming aud.rough hewing is done by wedges and sledges. The 

 rest of the work is done by patient cutting with an adze. The canoe 

 being roughly worked out is widened in beam by steaming it with wa- 

 ter and hot stones placed in the bottom of the canoe, stretchers or 

 thwarts of gradually increasing sizes being forced in as the wood ex- 

 pands. The long spur ends in large canoes are neatly scaifed on to 

 the body with a dovetailed joint and finished down as part of the whole. 

 The smoothing work on the outside is often -done with a chisel, but usu- 

 ally the interior of the canoe shows thetihipping marks of the adze. The 

 smoothing work on the exterior to lessen the friction of the water is 

 furthered by the use of sandpaper, sandstone, or shark's skin. The 

 conventional colors used now in painting are black outside and white 

 inside, with a red strip on the inside of the gunwale running quite around 

 the canoe and upon the bow and stern spurs. The process of painting 

 is described in the next chapter. The lines of these canoes are re- 

 markably fine and good; and «when of considerable size and intelli- 

 gently handled they are remarkably good sea-boats. Trips are often 

 made in them to Victoria, British Columbia; and the Kaigani visit the 

 outlying islands of the Prince of Wales Archipelago in the early sum- 

 mer in search of birds' eggs about 25 miles out to sea. 



HUNTING AND FISHING. 



METHODS OF CAPTURING ANIMALS. 



Salmon. — The first run of salmon occurs about the middle of July, 

 when they swarm in myriads into the mouths of the small fresh- water 



