THE AMERICAN FAMILY. 73 



coast of America, the greater number made their means of support a secondary- 

 consideration, some alternating it with agriculture, others with the chase. 

 Among the proper piscatory tribes, however, may be adduced the natives of Terra 

 del Fuego, and the Flathead nations of the Columbia river. Numerous tribes 

 unacquainted with agriculture, are sustained for a great part of the year by fishing 

 in the rivers and lakes ; and in the interim between the ending and the recom- 

 mencement of the fishing season, are driven to the greatest extremities for food 

 sufficient for the purposes of life. Thus the Shoshones west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, live more than half the year on roots alone ; and the Ottomacs of the 

 Orinoco are compelled for months together to assuage the cravings of nature by 

 mixing with their food a large proportion of unctuous clay.* 



In connection with this subject it may be remarked, that even the piscatory 

 tribes are wholly destitute of the spirit of maritime adventure, or even fondness 

 for the sea. Their boats are of the simplest construction, and in their fishing and 

 other aquatic excursions, they seldom intentionally lose sight of land. 



A few tribes were strictly agricultural before the arrival of the Europeans, 

 but a much greater number have become so since. Among the former are the 

 nations who inhabit the plains and open land between the Orinoco and the 

 Amazon, a region to which even the missionaries have hitherto been denied 

 admission.f In North America, the cultivation of the soil has been chiefly 

 restricted to the nations inhabiting the country between the great lakes and the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and between the Mississippi and the ocean. But even among 

 the most industrious of these tribes agriculture was pursued in a very elementary 

 manner, having been confined chiefly to the cultivation of maize or Indian corn, 

 the sweet potatoe, melons and tobacco.J Among the Catholic missions in South 



* " The Ottomacs during some months eat daily three quarters of a pound of clay, sHghtly hardened 

 by the fire, without their health being sensibly affected by it. They moisten the earth afresh when 

 they are going to swallow it. It has not been possible to verify hitherto with precision how much 

 nutritious vegetable or animal matter the Indians take in a week at the same time ; but it is certain 

 that they attribute the sensation of satiety which they feel to the clay, and not to the wretched aliments 

 which they occasionally take with it.^^ — Humb, Pers, Nar, V, p. 643. 



t Humboldt, Pers. Nar. Ill, p. 312. 



t Gallatin, in Archaeolog. Amer. II, p. 151, 152. — It is remarked by this author that "the 

 four millions of industrious inhabitants who, within less than forty years, have peopled our western 

 states, and derive more than ample means of subsistence from the soil, offer the most striking contrast 

 when compared with perhaps one hundred thousand Indians whose place they occupy." — Loco citat, 

 p. 154. 



19 



