Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/129

 with the peculiar qualities of which I am unacquainted. They split even, make good canoes, yield little ashes, scarcely produce any gum, and are excellent for building and other domestic purposes.

Our table was daily supplied with elk, wild fowl, and fish. Of the last, we feasted on the royal sturgeon, which is here large, white, and firm; unrivalled salmon; and abundance of the sweet little anchovy, which is taken in such quantities by the Indians, that we have seen their houses garnished with several hundred strings of them, dry and drying. We had them generally twice a day, at breakfast and dinner, and in a few weeks got such a surfeit, that few of us for years afterwards tasted an anchovy.

We remained upwards of six weeks at the fort, preparing for our grand expedition into the interior. During this period I went on several short excursions to the villages of various tribes up the river and about the bay. The natives generally received us with friendship and hospitality. They vary little in their habits or language; and the perfect uniformity in the shape of their heads would, I fancy, puzzle the phrenological skill of the most learned disciples of Gall or Spurzheim. I made a few midnight visits to their cemeteries, from which I abstracted a couple of skulls, which