QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 111 B 



Both the Haidas and Tshirasians have the custom of collecting salmon Salmon roe. 

 roe, putting it in boxes, and burying these below high-water mark on 

 the beach. When decomposition has taken place to some extent, and 

 the mass has a most noisome odour, it is ready to eat, and is considered 

 a very great luxury. Sometimes a box is uncovered without removing 

 it from the beach, and all sitting round eat the contents. Fatal poison- 

 ins: has followed this on several occasions. It is attributed to a small 

 worm which is said at times to enter the decomposing mass from the sea. 

 The Haidas also occasionally allowed the heads of salmon and halibut 

 to lie on the beach between high and low water marks till partly de- 

 composed, when they were considered to be much improved. 



The dog-fish is very abundant along some parts of the coast, and its Fish yielding 

 fishery is now beginning to be engaged in. The fish is not eaten by 

 the Haidas, but the oil extracted from the liver is readily sold to 

 white traders, and constitutes one of the few remaining articles of 

 legitimate marketable value possessed by the natives. Large sharks 

 abound on the northern and western coasts, and are much feared by 

 the Haidas, who allege that they frequently break their canoes and 

 eat the unfortunate occupants. No instance of this kind is known to 

 me, but they fear to attack these creatures. When, however, one of 

 them is stranded, or found from any cause in a moribund state, they 

 are not slow to take advantage of its condition, and from the liver 

 extract a large quantity of oil. The whale and hair-seal (if it be proper Shales and 

 to include these among products of the fisheries) abound in the waters seals * 

 sui'rounding the islands. I cannot learn that the former were ever 

 systematically pursued as they were by the Makah Indians of Cape 

 Flattery and Ahts of the west coast of Yancouver Island. When, 

 however, by chance one of these comes ashore it is a great prize to 

 the owner of the particular strip of beach on which it may be stranded. 

 The seal is shot or speared, the latter doubtless having been the primi- 

 tive mode. Both the flesh and blubber are eaten, the Indians comparing 

 the animal on account of its fatness to that — to many of them hypo- 

 thetical creature — from which pork is derived. They speak of it in 

 the Chinook jargon as si-wash co-sho* It is interesting to remark in 

 this connection that most of the Haidas will on no account eat pork, 

 for some reason which I have been unable to determine. 



The oyster is not found on the coasts of the Queen Charlotte Islands, shell fish, 

 though it occurs in some sheltered localities about Yancouver Island. 

 Clams (Saxidomus squalidus, Carditim Mittalli, &c.,) however, abound, 

 with the large horse mussel {Mytilus Californianus) which on rocks 

 exposed to the full force of tidal currents attains a great size. These 

 shell-fish of course form a portion of the native diet. They are not 



* Meaning simply Indian pig. Si-wash from French smivagc. Cosho from cochon. 



