Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/185

Rh every isolated rock that rises out of the Columbia is covered with the canoes of the dead. They are nearly all gone, and disease is still sweeping the miserable remnant away, so that, in a few more years, there will not be a single red man west of the Cascades, on the waters of the Columbia. The Indians of this lower country are generally smaller and not so well formed as the generality of the Natives of America. They have but few horses, travel mostly in their canoes, and live upon fish, fowls, and roots. Their houses are constructed of slabs, split out of Cedar, hewn and set upon end, around a frame of poles, and covered with bark. The Indians are very filthy in their habits, and almost destitute of clothing. The stench arising from the filth about their villages in the fishing season is almost insupportable. They are superior water-men, manage their canoes with the greatest dexterity, and are very expert in fishing. On the Columbia they fish with seines (such as are used in the United States). At the Falls they build scaffolds, out from the rocks, near to the falling water, and use a sort of dip net, fastened on a long staff. They use spears, where a seine cannot be drawn, and in the night they fish with hooks fastened on a pole, which they immerse deep into the water, and when they feel anything touch the pole, they jerk it up quickly and generally bring out a fish. This mode of fishing is practiced only during the season in which the Salmon are ascending the streams, and immediately below some great waterfall, where they collect in immense numbers. All the fish that are exported from Oregon are caught by the Indians. Their canoes are the finest we ever saw; they are made of the large white Cedar, hewn out with great labor. They are constructed with a high bow and stern, which are separate from the main vessel, and so neatly put on, that the joints will not admit water. They are