Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/182

176 176 DR. JOHN SCOULER. On arriving at Ft. George, I was informed that about half an hour ago, two Indians had fallen down from an attack of apoplexy ; they were crossing the river in a canoe & both of them fell senseless within ten minutes. I lost not a moment's time in going to see them. The bodies were both laid in the canoe in which they had died, & had their faces turned toward the ground. The bodies were yet warm, and the skin a dark colour. Their friends were sitting around them lamenting them, with the most dismal noise. On removing the mats in which they had been already enveloped, we found all pulsation either of the heart or great arteries gone. I opened a vein in the one who had died most recently, but with no success. In examining the bodies we received no assistance whatever from the natives ; this did not in any degree arise from an unwillingness to accept of our aid, but from an uncon- querable aversion they have to touch a dead body. Appoplexy is far from being a rare disease among the Cheenooks, & two months seldom elapse without an Indian being carried of[f] by it. This perhaps depends on the enormous quantity of fish & other kinds of animal food they eat, & their inordinate appetite for oil ; certainly few savage tribes have equal facility in procuring their favourite luxuries as the Indians of the N. W. Coast. Of the vegetables which they eat, many belong to the sus- picious order of Umbelliferse such as Heracleum, Sium, etc. 25th. My time is now divided between making ar- rangements for our voyage to the Northward & completing as far as possible my collection of Columbia plants. We are about to leave the Columbia during the finest season of the year, but I anticipate a rich harvest at Nootka & Fuca straits. 31st. We are now ready for our expedition, which promises to be of considerable interest. From the char- acter of the northern tribes, a greater degree of vigilance