Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/286

280 280 DR. JOHN SCOULER. wooden dishes, such as they use to steam their sturgeon in. Many of the canoes were so firmly fixed that it was impossible to get a view of their interior. Unwilling to do any injury, I examined one that was very much decayed. On lifting up one of the boards I disturbed a serpent who had [taken] up his abode in the canoe; (Le Virgil) which contained a complete skeleton. In this canoe I saw many of the ornaments of the deceased, which consisted of beads, Hyaquass, & some European trinkets. The steapness of the rock prevents the canoes from accumulating, as they roll into the river when they begin to decay & are carried out to the ocean. The canoes are in some instances orna- mented with feathers & boards painted with rude resem- blances of the human figure. This method of burying the dead, if I may use the expression, is very affecting. The solitude of the place & the assemblage of so many objects with which we are not accustomed to associate serious ideas, deposited as mementos of the dead, can not but form an interesting contrast & give rise to the most serious reflections. 82 September. This morning we breakfasted at the Kowlitch village & we were treated with much civility, although they were in a very unsettled state & were pre- paring for war in consequence of the circumstances for- merly alluded to. On arriving on board the ship much of my time was employed in procuring & preserving birds. The incessant rains we experienced at the advanced period of the year rendered the accumulation of plants hopeless. The river at this season was beginning to abound in birds. I ob- tained specimens of Pelecanus onocrotalus, Falco & a species of Vultur, which 1 think is nondescript. My birds were principfaljly obtained from the Indians, who would go through any fatigue for a bit of tobac[c]o. I was also sufficient master of the language to explain to them what