FOOD. 423 



of the Ohio, the Wabagh, the Miami, and the Illinois," as 

 well as by the natives along both banks of the Mississippi. 

 The evidences of ancient agriculture have been already 

 alluded to in the chapter on North American Archaeology ; 

 the maize appears to have been the only plant actually 

 under cultivation ; but some of the tribes depended for their 

 subsistence very much on roots, etc. Wild rice also grew 

 abundantly in the shallow lakes and streams of Michigan, 

 Winconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, as well as in the upper valleys 

 of the Mississippi and Missouri. It was gathered by the 

 women, and formed one of their principal articles of food. 

 They went into the rice-fields in canoes, and bending the 

 stalks in handsful over the sides of the canoe, beat out the 

 grain with paddles. 



The North American Indians, however, have long depended 

 mainly on the animal kingdom for their subsistence. They 

 are essentially hunters and fishermen, the buffalo, the deer 

 and the salmon supplying them with their principal articles 

 of food. The buffaloes were sometimes driven into pounds, 

 sometimes shot on the open prairie with bows and arrows. 

 Fish were speared, caught in weirs, etc., or sometimes shot. 

 The Macaws and Clallums on the Pacific coast sometimes 

 even killed whales. For this purpose they used large barbed 

 harpoons of bone, with a string, and a strong seal-skin 

 bag filled with air. This apparatus was used in the same 

 manner as among the Esquimaux (ante, p. 403). Like all 

 carnivorous animals, the Indians alternate between seasons 

 of great plenty and extreme want. Generally game is 

 abundant, and Noka, one of their most celebrated hunters, 

 is said to have killed in one day sixteen elks, four buffaloes, 

 five deer, three bears, one porcupine, and one lynx. This 

 of course was a very exceptional case. Still there is gene- 

 rally some season of the year when they kill more game than 

 is required for immediate consumption. In this case the 



