452 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



The latter, indeed, differ from all the tribes around them, and the great 

 family to which their language points them out as belonging. They 

 are described as being of a lighter complexion than the more southern 

 tribes. Their features are larger: this is particularly the case with 

 the females. They somewhat resemble the Indians of the Columbia, 

 but are a taller arid better-looking race. The Carriers are excessively 

 filthy in their habits, and they have the character of being equally 

 depraved and prone to sexual indulgences. Among the women, 

 chastity is said to be unknown. They are proverbially barren, and 

 almost every individual is infected with that loathsome disease, the 

 venereal. Abortion is constantly practised among them, both before 

 and after marriage. 



Formerly they dressed in robes made of marmot-skins, which are 

 taken in great quantities on the Rocky Mountains. They are now 

 clothed in articles of European manufacture, and obtain a plentiful 

 supply of them. 



Their houses are built after the fashion of log cabins, of small pine 

 saplings, which are kept in an upright position by posts. The roof, 

 unlike those of the southern tribes, is of bark. Their summer houses 

 are often as much as seventy feet long, and about fifteen feet high. 

 In winter they occupy dwellings of less size, which are often covered 

 with grass and earth. Some of them live in excavations in the 

 ground, which they cover with earth, leaving only an aperture in the 

 roof, which serves both as an entrance for themselves, and as a vent 

 for the smoke. 



They live chiefly upon salmon, although there are some other kinds 

 of fish which they take. They obtain, by hunting, a few deer, bears, 

 and some smaller animals, which they eat or sell. Great numbers of 

 wild-fowl, which, at times, almost cover their rivers and lakes, are 

 captured by them. 



They all prefer their meat putrid, and frequently keep it until it 

 smells so strong as to be disgusting. Parts of the salmon they bury 

 under ground for two or three months to putrefy, and the more it is 

 decayed the greater delicacy they consider it. 



Like the rest of the Indian tribes, they have their own peculiar 

 manner of taking the fish, which is quite ingenious. For this purpose 

 they build a weir across the stream, having an opening only in one 

 place, at which they affix a basket three feet in diameter, with the 

 mouth made somewhat like that of an eel-trap, through which alone 

 the fish can find a passage. On the side of this basket is a hole, to 

 which is attached a smaller basket, into which the fish pass from the 

 large one, and cannot return or escape. This is soon filled, and be- 



