NISQUALLY AND COLUMBIA RIVER. 299 



There is no permanent settlement of Indians at Port Discovery, and 

 during our stay we had visiters from the various neighbouring tribes. 

 The two sexes of all who visited us were dressed almost alike, and can 

 hardly be distinguished in external appearance from each other : both 

 wear their hair long, and both are equally dirty. All the adults have 

 their heads much flattened, which appears to be performed as it is 

 among the more southern tribes, by compressing the frontal and occi- 

 pital bones by several thicknesses of bark, until they become set, and 

 the head takes a permanent shape. 



Their children seem to give them but little trouble : in their infancy 

 they are tied to a piece of bark, which is hung to a tree or pole, where 

 it is kept in motion by a string fastened to the toe of the mother, as is 

 represented in the wood-cut at the end of the chapter. 



These Indians appear to have but few of the comforts, and barely 

 the necessaries of life. They live principally on fish, shell-fish, the 

 cammass-root, and potatoes. They have muskets and bows and 

 arrows : the bows are short and small, but possess great strength, and 

 are made of yew : their arrows are pointed with iron or bone. 



They also possess large sheath-knives, which they procure from the 

 Hudson Bay Company, in exchange for furs, and from the same 

 source they obtain blankets. For these articles the Company has a 

 regular tariff" of prices, which however, is not adhered to when a Boston 

 ship arrives. The natives are sufficiently alive to the advantages 

 they derive from competition, and boasted that in such cases they 

 frequently obtained four or five blankets for articles that usually bring 

 them only one. It was the hope of so advantageous a traffic that 

 caused so much satisfaction when we arrived, and the failure of this 

 hope produced, as we have seen, no little disappointment. 



They are not, however, wholly dependent on this trade for their 

 clothing, for some of the tribes manufacture a sort of blanket from 

 dogs' hair, which is substantially woven. 



During our stay at Port Discovery, they supplied us plentifully with 

 venison, ducks, geese, salmon, a large species of cod, flounders, her- 

 rings, and crabs. They also brought shell-fish, among which were 

 the common clam, (the quahog of the Eastern States,) mussels, and 

 small oysters. 



Besides the ornaments we saw among our first visiters, some wam- 

 pum-belts and strings of dentalium-shells were observed. They have 

 a great passion for carved pipes, for which they cultivate small quan- 

 tities of a species of tobacco. They also smoke the leaves of the 

 dwarf Arbutus mixed with their tobacco : these are powerful astrin 

 gents, and are also frequently chewed. 



