vni. 



PRODUCTIONS, LOCOMOTION, WEALTH, AND TRADE, 

 PRODUCTIONS : REARING AND CULTIVATION. 



Bearing. — The only domestic animal is the Indian dog. It resembles 

 the wolf, having a sharp nose, a long bushy tail, and being in fact a 

 •cross-breed from the wolf.* The Indians are remarkably fond of them, 

 and, in every canoe, three or four may be seen sticking their sharp muz- 

 zles over the gunwale. The poorer the Indian the greater the number 

 of dogs he owns. Practically they are not of very great use to their 

 masters ; they occasionally run down deer in the winter and are used 

 to hunt bear, but are very badly trained, as they are allowed to bark 

 furiously on scenting a trail and are very cowardly. They are, how- 

 ever, of little care to their owner, as they pick up their own food from 

 around the refuse of the tide, camp, and village. The pure strain has 

 been crossed with the cur dogs of the whites and the present result is 

 a degenerate variety. Bancroft is authority for the statement that 

 "Dogs of a peculiar breed, now nearly extinct, were shorn each year, 

 furnishing a long white hair, which, mixed with fine hemp and cedar, 

 made the best cloth." t 



Cultivation. — The only thing cultivated amongst the Tlingit, Haida, 

 and Tsimshian, before the advent of the whites, was a species of nar- 

 cotic plant similar to tobacco, but about which it is difficult to obtain 

 definite information. Vancouver (1793) first saw it at Kootznahoo or 

 Admiralty Island, and of it he says: 



On each side of the entrance some new habitations were constructing, and, for the 

 first time daring our intercourse with the Northwest American Indians, in the 

 vicinity of these habitations were found some square patches of ground iu a state of 

 cultivation, producing a plant that appeared to be a species of tobacco, and which 

 we understood is by no means uncommon amongst the inhabitants of Queen Char- 

 lotte's Islands, who cultivate much of this plant. X 



All the evidence points to the Haida as being the chief cultivators of 

 this species of tobacco plant. Today one finds stored away in the 

 out- of- the- way nooks in the older houses huge stone mortars, in which 

 this weed was pounded up for use. (Plate lxiii, Fig. 339). It was not 

 smoked, as may be supposed, , but chewed or held in the cheek. Its 

 preparation consisted in drying it, pounding it in a mortar, and jiress- 



* Dunn, Oregon, p. 290. % Vancouver, Voyage, Vol. in., p. 25G. 



t Bancroft, Vol. i.. Native Races, p, 166. 



333 



