444 PUGET SOUND AND OKONAGAN. 



ground ; for by the same manner of trying it, and under almost the 

 same circumstances, at Astoria, we obtained only 54°, although that 

 place is a degree to the south of Nisqually. 



The geographical position of Nisqually will be found in the tables. 

 The greatest range of temperature was found to be 55°, the lowest 

 37° ; and the mean, during the same period, 63-87° : the barometer 

 standing at 29-970 in. 



The Indians around Nisqually are few in number, and the whole 

 tribe does not amount to two hundred, including men, women, and 

 children. They belong to the tribes who flatten their heads, and are 

 represented as vicious and exceedingly lazy, sleeping all day, and 

 sitting up all night to gamble. So strong is the latter propensity 

 among all these tribes, that it is said, that after parting with all their 

 movable property, they will go so far as to stake their wives and 

 children, and lastly even themselves for years of slavery. 



Their clothing seldom consists of more tlian a blanket, a pair of 

 skin breeches, and moccasins. Little or no distinction of rank seems 

 to exist among them : the authority of the chiefs is no longer recog- 

 nised, and each individual is left to govern himself 



They are addicted to stealing, and will run some risk to effect their 

 object : thus, several blankets were stolen from the hammocks of our 

 men while asleep in their tents, although a sailor was known to be on 

 guard with loaded arms, only a few paces from the spot. Mr. An- 

 derson informed me that he had employed several of them to till the 

 land, but he found them disinclined to work, although he admitted 

 they were more apt than he had anticipated. This tribe, so far 

 as respects the ability of committing depredations on the whites, is 

 quite harmless, and is rapidly thinning off through diseases contracted 

 by a change of habits. They are all of a wandering character, and 

 change their residences in search of their food, which consists prin- 

 cipally of fish, particularly shell-fish. Clams are seen in great quan- 

 tities among them, strung on sticks, upon which they have been 

 preserved by drying and smoking. They also store up pounded 

 salmon, and the cammass-root. In the fall and winter they are sup- 

 plied with an abundance of game and wild-fowl, on which they then 

 live ; but they are not upon the whole well fed, as they are little 

 disposed to exert themselves to procure a supply of food, when they 

 are not in actual want. In the winter, several families live together 

 in their large board lodges : when the spring comes on they again 

 break up, and resort in small parties to those places where they can 



