Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/207

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO N. W. AMERICA. 201 two feet long, & equalling in capacity the stomach. Lungs of both sides nearly two lobed. Ovum, granular. The different tribes who inhabit De Fucas straits & the Gulph of Georgia, differ little in their features from the Cheenooks. The practice of flattening the heads of their children is universal. I could not ascertain any details of the nature of this process. They are more addicted to painting themselves than the natives of the Columbia are. The paints they use are red ochre, charcoal & powdered mica. They make regular lines on their faces with these powders, & when painted their appearance is very dis- agre[e]able. The quantity of grease they apply to their hair is prodigious, but we did not observe any of them powder their heads with the down of fowls, a custom so common at Nass & Nootka. Their canoes are similar to those of the Cheenooks ; but are very light & are ornamented with the teeth of some animal, probably the sea otter. The largest canoe we saw was one belonging to Squastin, which was capable of con- taining 30 men. Their dresses are very various, but European cloathes are very scarce among them. Blankets of dogs' wool are very common, & although superior in durability to those of Europe, are far from being so comfortable. Robes from the skins of rac[c]oons [?] & elks were very common. All these dresses were attended with the inconvenience of personal exposure ; some, however, had a dress which pre- vented this completely. It consisted of two pieces of a sort of leather prepared from the elks skin. These pieces reached from the neck to the ancles, & were sowed together down to the knee, forming a kind of shirt without sleeves. The women here, as well as on all other places on the coast, wore petticoats made of straw or bark. They are yet so fortunate as to have very few fire arms among them & iron is very scarce. ^JTheir bows are similar to those of