But if not great hunters, there are few people more expert in fishing. Their lines are generally, made from the sinew of the whale, and are extremely strong. For the hook, they usually make use of a straight piece of hard wood, in the lower part of which is inserted, and well secured with thread or whale sinew, a bit of bone made very sharp at the point and bearded; but I used to make for them hooks from iron, which they preferred, not only as being less liable to break, but more certain of securing the fish. Cod, halibut, and other sea fish were not only caught by them with hooks, but even salmon.
To take this latter fish, they practise the following method:—One person seats himself in a small canoe, and, baiting his hook with a sprat, which they are always careful to procure as fresh as possible, fastens his line to the handle of the paddle; this, as he plies it in the water, keeps the fish in constant motion, so as to give it the appearance of life, which the salmon seeing, leaps at it and is instantly hooked, and, by a sudden and dexterous motion of the paddle, drawn on board. I have known some of the natives take no less than eight or ten salmon of a morning, in this manner, and have seen from twenty to thirty canoes at a time in Friendly Cove thus employed.
They are likewise little less skilful in taking the whale. This they kill with a kind of javelin or harpoon thus constructed and fitted: the barbs are formed of bone, which are sharpened on the outer side, and hollowed within, for the purpose of forming a socket for the staff; these are then secured firmly together with a whale sinew, the point being fitted so as to receive a piece of mussel-shell, which is ground to a very sharp edge, and secured in its place by means of turpentine.[82] To this head or prong is fastened a strong line of whale sinew about nine feet in length, to the end of which is tied a bark rope from fifty to sixty fathoms long, having from twenty to thirty sealskin floats or buoys attached to it at certain intervals, in order to check the motion of the whale and obstruct his diving. In the socket of the harpoon a staff or pole of about ten feet long, gradually tapering from the middle to each end, is placed; this the harpooner holds in his hand, in order to strike the whale, and immediately detaches it as soon as the fish is struck.
The whale is considered as the king's fish, and no other person, when he is present, is permitted to touch him until the royal harpoon has first drawn his blood, however near he may approach; and it would be considered almost a sacrilege for any of the common people to strike a whale before he is killed, particularly if any of the chiefs should be present.[83] They also kill the porpoise[84] and sea-cow[85] with harpoons, but this inferior game is not interdicted the lower class.
With regard to their canoes, some of the handsomest to be found on the whole coast are made at Nootka, though very fine ones are brought by the Wickinninish and the Kla-iz-zarts, who have them more highly ornamented. They are of all sizes, from such as are capable of holding only one person to their largest war canoes, which will carry forty men, and are extremely light. Of these, the largest of any that I ever saw was one belonging to Maquina, which I measured, and found to be forty-two feet six inches in length at the bottom, and forty-six feet from stem to stern. These are made of pine,[86] hollowed out from a tree with their chisels solely, which are about three inches broad and six in length, and set into a handle of very hard wood.
This instrument was formerly made of flint, or some hard stone ground down to as sharp an edge as possible, but since they have learned the use of iron, they have almost all of them of that metal. Instead of a mallet for striking this chisel, they make use of a smooth round stone, which they hold in the palm of the hand. With this same awkward instrument they not only excavate their canoes and trays and smooth their planks, but cut down such trees as they want, either for building, fuel, or other purposes, a labour which is mostly done by their slaves.
The felling of trees, as practised by them, is a slow and most tedious process, three of them being generally from two to three days in cutting down a large one; yet so attached were they to their own method, that notwithstanding they saw Thompson frequently, with one of our axes, of which there was a number saved, fell a tree in less time than they could have gone round it with their chisels, still they could not be persuaded to make use of them.
