26 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



America. The Chinook canoes are of wood and from a sin^rle trunk, 

 and their construction has been much admired. By what means they 

 are excavated, or the split boards for the houses procured, we did not 

 ascertain. We saw no stojie hatchets in Oregon. 



The Chinook household tnats, like the Californian, are made of 

 rushes (Scirpus lacustris), placed side by side, and strung at inter- 

 vals; somewhat after the pattern of Canton matting. The Chinooks 

 have ^ wamimni' of the usual description; but strings and bands of 

 Dentalium shells, of somewhat similar model, seem principally to sub- 

 serve the purposes of money. They have the same art of preparing 

 soft leathei' as our Eastern tribes, but being much exposed to wet, 

 they use it for clothing more sparingly. They likewise weave Uanhets 

 and belts, principally from the wool of tlie Mountain Goat (Capra 

 Americana, an animal said to be abundant to the northward); and I 

 thought I could perceive in the tissue, some correspondence with the 

 Peruvian cloth. These blankets are diversified with angfular fiirures 

 of aboriginal pattern; and on examination, it appeared, that the red, 

 green, yellow, and blue yarn, had been procured from traders ; while 

 tlie black yarn seemed to be the hair of their shaggy dogs, a material 

 otherwise reported to be used for this purpose. The latter circum- 

 stance, together with the use of the doa- as a beast of burden in the 

 far North, is possibly connected with the aboriginal introduction of 

 the animal into the American continent. 



The Chinooks appear to be unacquainted with the art of dyeing, but 

 they have some aboriginal ^aw^^^ ; such as the black and the dull-red 

 colours, used in ornamenting their hats, canoes, masks, and other im- 

 plements. The other colours we observed, may have been obtained 

 from traders. 



Sufficient has already been stated of the Chinooks, to show their 

 greater advancement in the arts, over the Imnting tribes of North 

 America ; but some of their ingenious devices for procuring fish and 

 game, may be here noticed. We observed tall masts set up in par- 

 ticular situations, " to intercept, by means of connecting nets, the 

 flight of waterfowl at night." A sort of fish-rake was successfully 

 employed; but we saw nothing of fish-nets or seines, and indeed the 

 sudden deepening of the water is unfavourable to their use. A pecu- 

 liar mode of 'spearing,' or rather of noosing sturgeon, at surprising 

 depths, was repeatedly spoken of: together with a method of captur- 

 ing the whale, an exploit never dreamed of by the islanders of the 

 Pacific, who are otherwise by no means deficient in enterprise. 



