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/325

 wretched tools they cut down trees from thirty to forty feet in circumference; and with unparalleled patience and perseverance continued their tedious and laborious undertaking until their domicile was roofed or their canoe fit to encounter the turbulent waves of the Columbia.

As their chief source of subsistence depends on their fisheries, they pay great attention to their nets, in the manufacture of which they exhibit their usual ingenuity. They occasionally fish with the hook and line. They make use of the common straight net, the scooping or dipping net, and the gig. Lewis and Clarke mention that "the first is of different lengths and depths, and used in taking salmon, carr, and trout, in the deep inlets among the marshy grounds, and the mouths of deep creeks. The scooping net is used for small fish in the spring and summer season; and in both kinds the net is formed of silk grass, or the bark of white cedar. The gig is used at all seasons, and for all kinds of fish they can procure with it; so too is the hook and line; of which the line is made of the same material as the net, and the hook generally brought by the traders; though before the whites came, they made hooks out of two small pieces of bone, resembling the European hook, but with a much