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North-West Continent of America. 245 



cribed by Captain Cook. I continued my usual practice of 

 making these people presents in return for their friendly re- 

 ception and entertainment. 



The navigation of the river now became more difficult, 

 from the numerous channels into which it was divided, 

 without any sensible diminution in the velocity of its cur- 

 rent. We soon reached another house of the common 

 size, where we were w T ell received ; but whether our 

 guides had informed them that we were not in w T ant of 

 any thing, or that they were deficient in inclination, or 

 perhaps the means, of being hospitable to us, they did not 

 offer us any refreshment. They were in a state of busy 

 preparation. Some of the women were employed in beat- 

 ing and preparing the inner rind of the cedar bark, to 

 which they gave the appearance of flax. Others were 

 spinning with a distaff and spindle. One of them was 

 weaving a robe of it intermixed with the stripes of the 

 sea-otter skin, on a frame of adequate contrivance that 

 was placed against the side of the house. The men were 

 fishing on the river with drag-nets between two canoes. 

 These nets are forced by poles to the bottom, the current 

 driving them before it ; by which means the salmon com- 

 ing up the river are intercepted, and give notice of their 

 being taken by the struggles they make in the bag or sleeve 

 of the net. There are no weirs in this part of the river, 

 as I suppose, from the numerous channels into which it is 

 divided. The machines, therefore, are placed along the 

 banks, and consequently these people are not so well sup- 

 plied with fish as the village which has been already de- 

 scribed, nor do they appear to possess the same industry. 

 The inhabitants of the last house accompanied us in a large 

 canoe. They recommended us to leave ours'nere, as the 

 next village was but at a small distance from us, and the wa- 

 ter more rapid than that which we had passed. They in- 

 formed us also, that we were approaching a cascade. I 

 directed them to shoot it, and proceeded myself to the 

 foot thereof, wmere I re-imbarked, and we went on with 

 great velocity, till we came to a fall, where we left our 

 canoe, and carried our luggage along a road through a 

 wood for some hundred yards, when we came to a village, 

 consisting of six very large houses, erected on pallisades, 

 rising twenty-five feet from the ground, which differed in 

 no one circumstance from those already described, but the 

 height of their elevation. They contained only four men 



