Ch. iv. among; the American Indians. 61 



The late voyages to the north-west coast of 

 America confirm these accounts of the frequent 

 pressure of want in savage life, and shew the un- 

 certainty of the resource of fishing, which seems 

 to afford, in general, the most plentiful harvest of 

 food that is furnished by unassisted nature. The 

 sea on the coast near Nootka Sound is seldom or 

 never so much frozen as to prevent the inhabitants 

 from having access to it. Yet from the very great 

 precautions they use in laying up stores for the 

 winter, and their attention to prepare and pre- 

 serve whatever food is capable of it for the colder 

 seasons, it is evident that the sea at these times 

 yields no fish ; and it appears that they often un- 

 dergo very great hardships from want of provi- 

 sions in the cold months* During a Mr. Mackay's 

 stay at Nootka Sound, from 1786 to 1787, the 

 length and severity of the winter occasioned a 

 famine. The stock of dried fish was expended, 

 and no fresh supplies of any kind were to be 

 caught ; so that the natives were obliged to sub- 

 mit to a fixed allowance, and the chiefs brought 

 every day to our countrymen the stated meal of 

 seven dried herrings' heads. Mr. Meares says 

 that the perusal of this gentleman's journal would 

 shock any mind tinctured with humanity.f 



Captain Vancouver mentions some of the peo- 

 ple to the north of Nootka Sound as living very 

 miserably on a paste made of the inner bark of 



* Meares's Voyage, ch. xxiv. p. 266. 

 f Id. ch. xi. p. 132. 



