anoe. The same method of
adornment may be seen among the aborigines of Alaska and other regions
of the North Pacific, to-day. The figures are made of small pieces of
wood neatly fitted together by inlaying and mortising, without any spike
of any kind. When one reflects that the Indians seen by Lewis and Clark
constructed their large canoes with very poor tools, it is impossible
to withhold one's admiration of their industry and patience. The journal
says:--

"Our admiration of their skill in these curious constructions was
increased by observing the very inadequate implements which they use.
These Indians possess very few axes, and the only tool they employ, from
felling the tree to the delicate workmanship of the images, is a chisel
made of an old file, about an inch or an inch and a half in width.
Even of this, too, they have not learned the proper management; for the
chisel is sometimes fixed in a large block of wood, and, being held in
the right hand, the block is pushed with the left, without the aid of a
mallet. But under all these disadvantages, their canoes, which one
would suppose to be the work of years, are made in a few weeks. A canoe,
however, is very highly prized, being in traffic an article of the
greatest value except a wife, and of equal value with her; so that
a lover generally gives a canoe to the father in exchange for his
daughter. . . .

"The harmony of their private life is secured by their ignorance
of spirituous liquors, the earliest and most dreadful present which
civilization has given to the other natives of the continent. Although
they have had so much intercourse with whites, they do not appear to
possess any knowledge of those dangerous luxuries; at least they have
never inquired after them, which they probably would have done if once
liquors bad been introduced among them. Indeed, we have not observed any
liquor of intoxicating quality among these or any Indians west of the
Rocky Mountains, the universal beverage being pure water. They, however,
sometimes almost intoxicate themselves by smoking tobacco, of which they
are excessively fond, and the pleasures of which they prolong as much as
possible, by retaining vast quantities at a time, till after circulating
through the lungs and stomach it issues in volumes from the mouth and
nostrils."

A long period of quiet prevailed in camp after the first of February,
before the final preparations for departure were made. Parties were sent
ou