70 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



manufacture, both of tiu and wood. They like also those of Chinese 

 make. They do not use them for carrying water, and but little for 

 holding food, but usually for holding other things. Cheap trunks of 

 American manufacture are very common, in which they keep their best 

 clothes, and other things which they wish to save from the smoke and 

 dirt. 



Tight haslcets. — Water-tight baskets which are inflexible are very 

 common, holding from a quart to half a bushel. They make them of 

 cedar roots split, sew them very firmly together, and ornament them 

 with grasses of various colors, yellow, black, slate-color, &c. 



Mats. — Their mats, which are often spread on the ground, and on 

 which their food is placed, are made of the swamp-grass sometimes called 

 cattail. The women gather the material in the summer, dry it, and 

 make them in the winter. The grass is first cut as long as is to be the 

 width of the mat, usually about three feet, but sometimes five feet. The 

 ends are then fastened together in the shape of the mat, and strings 

 made of the same grass torn to pieces and twisted are run through 

 lengthwise of the mat and about four inches apart. In doing this, a 

 needle is used, which is about three feet long, a half an inch wide, and 

 three-cornered, with an eye in one end, in which the string is placed. 

 After the string is run through, a small piece of wood with a crease is 

 run over the mat where the string has been sewed to render it firm and 

 of good shape. The edges of the mats are fastened by weaving the 

 grass firmly together. These mats are also used for beds, several thick- 

 nesses of them being quite soft, for making temporary houses, and for 

 lining wooden houses to make them warm. 



Mat-haslcets. — A basket is sometimes made of grass, which is quite 

 strong, but their principal flexible basket is made of cedar limbs, split 

 and dressed. These pieces, some with the bark on and some with it off, 

 are arranged quite regularly and tastily. They are strong, and are 

 used for carrying apples, potatoes, fish, clams, mussels, indeed are of al- 

 most universal use for carrying purposes. They hold from half a bushel 

 to a bushel. A rope is fastened into the handles of the basket, which 

 passes around the forehead of a woman, and thus they usually carry 

 the load by the strength of the neck. I have seen one cirry a basket 

 full of apples, and two babies one and two years old. Where the rope 

 presses against the forehead it is changed to a braid of cloth, about 

 three inches wide, which is soft, and does not hurt the head. The colors 

 in this braid are often woven in quite fancifully. 



B. — Vessels and utensils jfor preparing food. 



Troughs and haslcets for stone 'boiling. — None are in use now. Formerly 

 iheir water-tight baskets described in A of this section were used for 

 this purpose. 



Pots of clay, stone, &c. — None of clay or stone are used. Iron pots of 



