ACCOUNT OP THE INDIANS. 325 



roes in them, squeeze them, with their thumb 

 and finger, through their natural outlet, into 

 into their mouths, and swallow them down, with 

 avidity. They also bury in the earth large 

 boxes, filled with the roes of salmon, where 

 they are suffered to remain, until they are a lit- 

 tle putrified, when tliey take them out, and eat 

 them, either cooked or raw; and they appear 

 to relish them well, though they fill the air with 

 a terrible stench, for a considerable distance 

 round. A person who eats this food, and rubs 

 salmon oil on his han3s, can be smelt in warm 

 weather, to the distance of nearly a quarter of a 

 mile. .fm / 



The natives in a j>art of the country called 

 JVipigon, as well as in some other parts of the 

 country, are frequently obliged, by necessity, to 

 subsist on a kind of moss, which they find adher- 

 ing to the rocks, and which they denominate As- 

 se-ne Wa-quon-uck, that is, eggs of the rock. 

 This moss when boiled with pimican, &c. dissolves 

 into a glutinous substance, and is very palatable j 

 but when cooked in Water only, it is far other- 

 wise, as it then has an unpleasant, bitter taste. 

 There is some nourishment in it ; and it has sav- 

 ed the life of many of the Indians, as well as of 

 some of our voyagers. 



On tlje Columbia River, there is a people 



