16 THE CHINOOK INDIANS. 



entrance to the Straits of De Fuca. They are fished up from the 

 bottom of the sea, and are found an inch and a-half to two inches 

 in length ; they are white, slender, hollow, and tapering to a point, 

 slightly curved, and about the size of the stem of an ordinary clay 

 tobacco pipe. They are valuable in proportion to their length, and 

 their value increases according to a fixed ratio, forty shells being the 

 standard number required to extend a fathoms' length, which number 

 is in that case equal in value to a beaver's skin, but if thirty-nine be 

 found long enough to make the fathom it would be worth two beaver 

 skins, if thirty-eight three skins, and so on, increasing one beaver 

 skin for every shell less than the standard number. 



The Chinooks evince very little taste in comparison with some of 

 the tribes on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, in ornamenting 

 either their persons or their warlike or domestic implements. The 

 only utensils I saw at all creditable to their decorative skill were carv- 

 ed bowls and spoons of horn, and baskets made of roots and grass 

 woven so closely as to serve all purposes of a pail in holding and 

 carrying water. In these they even boil the salmon which constitute 

 their principal food. This is done by immersing the fish in one of the 

 baskets filled with water, into which they throw red hot stones until 

 the fish is cooked, and I have seen fish dressed as expeditiously by 

 them in this way as if done in a kettle over a fire by our own people. 



The salmon is taken during the months of June and July in im- 

 mense numbers in the Columbia river and its tributaries by spearing 

 and with gill nets. They have also a small hand net something like 

 our common landing net, which is used in rapids where the salmon are 

 crowded together and near the surface. These nets are ingeniously 

 contrived, so that when a fish is in them his own struggles loosen a 

 little stick which keeps the mouth of the net open while empty, but 

 which, when the net is full, immediately draws it together like a 

 purse with the weight of the salmon and effectually secures the prey. 



The salmon taken during this period of the year are split open and 

 dried in the sun for their winter's supply. I have never seen salt 

 made use of by any tribe of Indians for the purpose of preserving food, 

 and they all evince the greatest dislike to salt meat. 



I may here mention a curious fact respecting the salmon of the 

 Columbia river ; they have never been known to rise to a fly, although 

 it has been frequently tried by gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, with the very best tackle. The salmon go up the river as far 

 as they possibly can and into all its tributary streams in myriads ; it 

 is, however, a well known fact that after spawning they never 



