24 THE INDIANS OP CAPE FLATTERY. 



have accustomed themselves to other articles of diet; flour, hard bread, rice, 

 and beans are always acceptable to them ; they are also very fond of molasses and 

 sugar, and are willing at aU times to barter their furs, oil, or fish for these commo- 

 dities. 



Next to the halibut are the salmon and codfish, and a species of fish called the 

 " cultus" or bastard cod. These, however, are usually eaten fresh, except in seasons 

 of great plenty, when the salmon is dried in the smoke. They are all taken with 

 the hook, and the salmon fishing is most excellent sport. The bait used is herring, 

 and unless these are plenty, they will not try to catch salmon, although the waters 

 may be alive with them. A more extended notice of these fish and of several other 

 varieties used for food, will be found in another portion of this paper. 



The squid, which is used for bait in the halibut fishery, is also eaten. When first 

 taken from the water it is a slimy jelly-like substance, of rather disgusting 

 appearance, but when boiled it becomes firm and as white as the flesh of a lobster, 

 which it somewhat resembles in taste, but is much tougher to masticate. I have 

 found it, chopped with lettuce, an excellent ingredient in salad. The onycJioteutJiis 

 is also found, but it is never eaten. Skates are abundant, but as they usually make 

 their appearance during the halibut season, they are seldom used, although the 

 Indians like them very well ; but they seem to prefer halibut. Three varieties of 

 ecliinus are found here, and are eaten in great quantities ; they are either caught by 

 spearing them at low tide, or are taken in a very simple manner by means of a piece 

 of kelp. To effect this a stem of the kelp is sunk to the bottom, having a line and 

 buoy attached. The echini go on it to feed, and after the kelp has remained 

 several hours, it is gently drawn into a canoe and the creature picked off. The 

 Indians collect them in this manner in great numbers during the spring months. 

 Although a variety of bivalves is found, they do not abound as they do in 

 the bays further up the Strait, and do not form a common article of nutriment, 

 except that mussels of the finest description cover the rocks about Cape Flattery and 

 Tatooche Island, and are eaten whenever the Indian appetite craves them, or when 

 the breakers of the Pacific are sufficiently quiet to permit a search. These are 

 either boiled or roasted in the ashes, and are very delicious cooked by either method. 

 Barnacles, crabs, sea slugs, periwinkles, limpets, &c. furnish occasional repasts. 

 Scallops, which are found in the bays of Fuca Strait, are excluded from their 

 list of food. They are considered as having some peculiar powers belonging to 

 them, and in consequence their shells are made use of as rattles to be used in 

 their ceremonials. Oysters were formerly found in Neeah Bay, but have been 

 destroyed by some cause of late years ; the only evidence of their former exist- 

 ence being the shells which are thrown ashore by the waves. They are found in 

 the various bays and inlets of Vancouver Island, but the Indians do not eat them. 

 In fact there are but few of the animal products of the ocean but are considered 

 edible, and serve to diversify the food. Of land animals they eat the flesh of the 

 elk, deer, and bear ; but, although these abound a short distance in the interior, the 

 Indians very seldom hunt for them, and when they kill any, as they occasionally 

 do, they are always ready to sell the flesh to the white residents in the bay, seeming 

 to care more for the skin than the carcass. Smaller animals, such as raccoons, 



