the same stock, but broken into tribes,
or rather hordes, by those feuds and schisms frequent among Indians.

These people generally live by fishing. It is true they occasionally
hunt the elk and deer, and ensnare the water-fowl of their ponds and
rivers, but these are casual luxuries. Their chief subsistence is
derived from the salmon and other fish which abound in the Columbia
and its tributary streams, aided by roots and herbs, especially the
wappatoo, which is found on the islands of the river.

As the Indians of the plains who depend upon the chase are bold
and expert riders, and pride themselves upon their horses, so these
piscatory tribes of the coast excel in the management of canoes, and are
never more at home than when riding upon the waves. Their canoes vary in
form and size. Some are upwards of fifty feet long, cut out of a single
tree, either fir or white cedar, and capable of carrying thirty persons.
They have thwart pieces from side to side about three inches thick,
and their gunwales flare outwards, so as to cast off the surges of the
waves. The bow and stern are decorated with grotesque figures of men and
animals, sometimes five feet in height.

In managing their canoes they kneel two and two along the bottom,
sitting on their heels, and wielding paddles from four to five feet
long, while one sits on the stern and steers with a paddle of the same
kind. The women are equally expert with the men in managing the canoe,
and generally take the helm.

It is surprising to see with what fearless unconcern these savages
venture in their light barks upon the roughest and most tempestuous
seas. They seem to ride upon the waves like sea-fowl. Should a surge
throw the canoe upon its side and endanger its overturn, those to
windward lean over the upper gunwale, thrust their paddles deep into the
wave, apparently catch the water and force it under the canoe, and by
this action not merely regain III an equilibrium, but give their bark a
vigorous impulse forward.

The effect of different modes of life upon the human frame and human
character is strikingly instanced in the contrast between the hunting
Indians of the prairies, and the piscatory Indians of the sea-coast. The
former, continually on horseback scouring the plains, gaining their food
by hardy exercise, and subsisting chiefly on flesh, are generally tall,
sinewy, meagre, but well formed, and of bold and fierce deportment: the
latter, lounging about the riv