586 
MEDICINAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE 
coloured and liquid. At a lower temperature it becomes thick and opaque, in¬ 
creasing in solidity according to the degree of cold ; in this state it is whitish in 
colour and resembles soft lard. The northern tribes keep it in boxes of their 
own making, but the more southern Indians—such the Quakwolths, at Fort 
Rupert (lat. 50° 42' 36" N., long. 127° 25' 07" W.)—preserve it in bottles, 
made out of the stem of the giant seaweed, Mqcrocystis pyrifera, Ag., squeezing 
out a little, when required, as a painter does his colours out of the tinfoil 
tubes. 
5. The fish, cooked fresh, is most delicious, and, when salted, is also a very 
palatable article of food, and held in much request among the Hudson Bay 
Company’s traders and other old residents on the coast. The Indians dry vast 
numbers for winter use, and carry them with them in strings, during their 
annual migrations south, and for sale to other tribes who come to purchase them 
as well as the oil. The Tdmpsheans say that the Naas river clothes them and 
the Skeena river feeds them, because the Uydalis , from the Queen Charlotte Is¬ 
lands, and other tribes who are prohibited from fishing for the Oulachan in the 
Naas, come and purchase the oil from them, paying blankets for it, while the 
salmon of the Skeena supplies them with abundant supplies of food. I cannot 
but think that these fish would form a most valuable and lucrative article of 
commerce either in the salt or dried condition, and that in either of these forms, 
or preserved in ice, or in their own or olive oil, like sardines, they would command 
a ready market, especially in the Roman Catholic countries along the Pacific 
coast, in China, and even in Europe and the Atlantic States of America. A 
small joint stock company was indeed formed in Victoria, in 1864, for that pur¬ 
pose, but failed for want of capital and in ignorance of the habits of the fish. 
Before they could get their affairs settled to start north, the season was past, and 
nothing further was ever done. The Indians, no doubt, declare that no white 
man shall ever cast a net in the Naas, but independently of this somewhat futile 
threat, supplies could be purchased from the Indians to almost any amount, and, 
if sufficient inducement were held out to them, the present catch could perfectly 
easily be increased tenfold. 
6 . The oil is of even greater value than the fish itself, as usually seen in the 
opaque lard-like condition, and after having undergone no other preparation 
than the rough trying out just described, its taste is not unpleasant and the odour 
by no means disagreeable. Even in this condition it lias been used by the 
missionary at Metlakatlah, thus refers to it in a letter addressed to the Church Missionary 
Society :—“.... The process ” (of extraction) “ is as follows : Make a large fire; place three 
or four heaps of stones as big as your hand in it; while these are heating, fill a few baskets 
with rather stale fish, and get a tub of water into the house. When the stones are redliot, 
bring a deep box, about eighteen inches square, near the fire, and put about half a gallon of 
the fish into it and as much fresh water, then three or four hot stones, using wooden tongs. 
Repeat the doses again, then stir up the whole. Repeat them again, stir again : take out the 
cold stones and place them in the fire. Proceed in this way till the box is nearly full, then 
let the whole cool, and commence skimming off the grease. While this is cooking prepare an¬ 
other box full in the same way. In doing the third, use, instead of fresh water, the liquid from 
the first box. On coming to the refuse of the boiled fish in the box, which is still pretty 
warm, let it be put into a rough willow-basket, then let an old woman, for the purpose of 
squeezing the liquid from it, lay it on a wooden grate, sufficiently elevated to let a wooden 
box stand under; then let her lay her naked chest on it, and press with all her weight. On 
no account must a male undertake to do this. Cast what remains in the basket, anywhere 
near the house, but take the liquid just saved and use it over again instead of fresh water. The 
refuse must be allowed to accumulate, and though it will soon become putrid and change into 
a heap of maggots, and give out a smell almost unendurable, it must not be removed. The filth 
contracted by those engaged in the work, must not be washed off until all is over ; that is, till 
all the fish are boiled, and this will take about two or three weeks. All these plans must be 
carried out without any addition or change, otherwise the fish will be ashanud ” (the Indians 
think), “and perhaps never come back again.” 
