266 Journal of a Voyage through the 



chief, whose name was Soocomlick, and who was then at 

 his fishing-weir, of our arrival. He immediately returned 

 to the village to confirm the cordial reception of his peo- 

 ple ; and having conducted us to his house, entertained us 

 with the most respectful hospitality. In short, he behaved 

 to us with so much attention and kindness, that I did not 

 withhold any thing in r;|j power to give, which might af- 

 ford him satisfaction. I presented him with two yards of 

 blue cloth, an axe, knives, and various other articles. He 

 gave me in return a large shell which resembled the under 

 shell of a Guernsey oyster, but somewhat larger. Where 

 they procure them I could not discover, but they cut and 

 polish them for bracelets, ear-rings, and other personal or- 

 naments. He regretted that he had no sea-otter skins to 

 give me, but engaged to provide abundance of them when- 

 ever either my friends or myself should return by sea ; an 

 expectation which I thought it right to encourage among 

 these people. He also earnestly requested me to bring 

 him a gun and ammunition. I might have procured many 

 curious articles at this place, but was prevented by the con- 

 sideration that we must have carried them on our backs 

 upwards of three hundred miles through a mountainous 

 country. The young chief, to his other acts of kindness, 

 added as large a supply of fish as we chose to take. 



Our visit did not occasion any particular interruption of 

 the ordinary occupation of the people ; especially of the 

 women, who w r ere employed in boiling sorrel, and dif- 

 ferent kinds of berries, with salmon-roes, in large square 

 kettles of cedar wood. This pottage, when it attained a 

 certain consistency, they took out with ladles, and poured 

 it into frames of about twelve inches square and one deep, 

 the bottom being covered with a large leaf, which were 

 then exposed to the sun till their contents became so many 

 dried cakes. The roes that are mixed up with the bitter 

 berries, are prepared in the same way. From the quantity 

 of this kind of provision, it must be a principal article of 

 food, and probably of traffic. These people have also port- 

 able ehests of cedar, in which they pack them, as well as 

 their salmon, both dried and roasted. It appeared to me, 

 that they eat no flesh, except such as the sea may afford 

 them, as that of the sea-otter and the seal. The only in- 

 stance we observed to the contrary, was in the young In- 

 dian who accompanied us among the islands, and has 

 been already mentioned as feasting on the flesh of a per- 



