418 



PUGET SOUND AND OKONAGAN. 



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 principally of fish, 

 particularly shell-fish. Clams are seen in great quantities 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 supplied 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 pro- 

 cure 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 obtain their food most easily. This 

 tribe, as is the case with most of those in the territory, speak a pecu- 

 liar language among themselves, but in communication with others 

 they use the Chinook language. 



As the spring is opening, small parties of these Indians may be 

 frequently seen on their way, with their goods and chattels tied on 

 their horse's back, or in small canoes, to the different cammass and 

 fishing grounds. 



During the salmon-fishery, vast shoals of young herring are seen, 

 which the Indians take with a 

 kind of rake attached to the 

 paddle. The herring are used 

 for bait for the salmon. Their 

 hooks are made in an inge- 

 nious manner of the yew tree, 

 and are strong and capable of 

 catching the large fish. They 

 are chiefly employed in trailing for fish. A species of rock cod is 

 also abundant, some of which exceed fifty pounds in weight. Floun- 

 ders are also to be had in great quantities. 



I have before stated that Lieutenant Johnson's party was ready for 

 departure on the 19th May; that it consisted of Lieutenant Johnson, 

 Messrs. Pickering, Waldron, and Brackenridge, a sergeant of ma- 

 rines, and a servant. I must do justice to the exertions of this officer 

 in getting ready for his journey, which he accomplished in less time 

 than I anticipated, as the delays incident to setting out on a novel ex- 

 pedition, and one believed by most persons to be scarcely practicable 



FISH-HOOKS. 



