Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/32

 dead Indian lay in his war canoe waiting for the flood of life which should some day come in like the tide from the sunset ocean.

Considering the great value of these canoes and the time it took to build one, it almost passes belief that they would be sacrificed to a simple belief in the future life. It is exactly as though upon the death of a multi-millionaire of our day all of his moneys, stocks and bonds should be buried with him, his heirs renouncing the use of all his accumulations.

The Chinook canoe of the lower river was a beautiful thing and was as much a home of the Indians as was the lodge. In Alaska the Indians had good canoes, but nothing that for size, model and finish equaled the Indian canoe of the Columbia. These river canoes were of all sizes, from the one-man hunting canoe that 12