The food which we saw them eat, was dried fish and the flesh of some animal, either broiled or roasted. Some of the latter that was bought, seemed to be bear’s flesh, but with a fishy taste. They also eat the larger sort of fern-root, mentioned at Nootka, either baked or dressed in some other way, and some of our people saw them eat freely of a substance which they supposed to be the inner part of the pine bark. Their drink is most probably water, for in their boats they brought snow in the wooden vessels, which they swallowed by mouthfuls. Perhaps it could be carried with less trouble in these open vessels than water itself. Their method of eating seems decent and cleanly, for they always took care to separate any dirt that might adhere to their victuals. And though they sometimes did eat the raw fat of some sea animal, they cut it carefully into mouthfuls with their small knives. The same might be said of their persons, which, to appearance, were always clean and decent, without grease or dirt; and the wooden vessels in which their victuals are probably put, were kept in excellent order, as well as their boats, which were neat and free from lumber.
Their language seems difficult to be understood at first, not from any indistinctness or confusion in their words and sounds, but from the various significations they have. For they appeared to use the very same word frequently on very different occasions, though doubtless this might, if our intercourse had been of longer duration, have been found to be a mistake on our side. The only words I could obtain, and for them I am indebted to Mr. Anderson[68], were those that follow, the first of which was also used at Nootka in the same sense, though we could not trace an affinity between the two dialects in any other instance.
Lukluk, _A brown shaggy skin, perhaps a bear’s._
Naema, _Give me something in exchange_, or _barter_.
Ooonaka, _Of_, or _belonging to me_.—_Will you barter for this that belongs to me?_
Weena, _or_ _Stranger—calling to one._ Veena,
Keelashuk, _Guts of which they make jackets._
Amilhtoo, _A piece of white bear’s skin_, or _perhaps the hair that covered it_.
Whaehai, _Shall I keep it? do you give it me?_
As to the animals of this part of the continent, the same must be understood as of those at Nootka, that is, that the knowledge we have of them is entirely taken from the skins which the natives brought to sell. These were chiefly of seals, a few foxes, the whitish cat, or _lynx_, common and pine martins, small ermins, bears, racoons, and sea-otters. Of these, the most common were the martin, racoon, and sea-otter-skins, which composed the ordinary dress of the natives; but the skins of the first, which in general were of a much lighter brown than those of Nootka, were far superior to them in fineness; whereas the last, which, as well as the martins, were far more plentiful than at Nootka, seemed greatly inferior in the fineness and thickness of their fur, though they greatly exceeded them in size, and were almost all of the glossy black sort, which is doubtless the colour most esteemed in those skins. Bear and seal skins were also pretty common; and the last were in general white, very beautifully spotted with black, or sometimes simply white, and many of the bears here were of a brown or sooty colour.