94 
{)lanks, some of which, at least, could be moved at will to let out the 
smoke. The shell, which was carried away each spring to line a house 
frame in some other locality, consisted of long planks laid horizontally 
on edge one above the other, resting against the house posts on one 
face and lashed to a few slender poles on the other. A ga]) between 
the ends of two or four jdanks in the front of the house servefl as a 
door, and other gaps, irregularly spacefl, were windows, often covered 
with mats to exclude the rain. Theoretically, the house contained as 
many families as there were posts, if we omit two of the end posts, for 
the normal space assigned to a family was the section between two 
posts, from the wall to the middle of the house, where its fire was 
shared by the family on the opjiosite side. Each section had a low 
sleeping bench, and usually a mat curtain or a plank to mark its 
limits. As Cook aptly remarked, “The whole might be compared to a 
long stable, with a double range of stalls, and a broad passage in the 
middle.” “ Their furniture ”, he continues, “ consists chiefly of a 
great number of chests and boxes of all sizes, which are generally 
piled upon each other, close to the sides or ends of the house; and 
contain their spare garments, skins, masks, and other things which 
they set a value upon.”^ 
The Nootka Indians (or perhaps only their chiefs) had also 
another type of house, built after the manner of the houses of the 
Kwakiutl and the northern tribes. Its frame was square rather than 
oblong, and the roof was gabled, not shaped like a penthouse. 
The ])lanks of the shell seem to have been arranged horizontally, as in 
the other type of house, not perpendicularly, after the usual custom 
of the Kwakiutl and Haida Indians.^ The roof beams were often 
of enormous size, and the pillars supporting them carved with 
fantastic figures. Weird paintings on the outside of the front wall, 
and sometimes a gigantic totem-pole planted at the entrance, or a 
little aloof, increased the savage dignity of the structure, which 
greatly impressed the early voyagers. “On entering the house,” 
writes Meares, “ we were absolutely astonished at the vast area it 
enclosed. It contained a large square, boarded up close on all sides 
to the height of twenty feet, with planks of an uncommon breadth 
iCook; Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 315 f. Cf. llie description of a Coast Salish house 640 feet long near 
the mouth of the Fraser river, m the .Ituirna! of Simon Fraser, ^Masson; Op. cit., ,ser. i, p, 197 f. 
SJewitl; Op. cit., p. 69. Th? prevailing arrangement among llio Tsimsliiaii and TIinkit was 
horizontal. 
