in number as the salmon decrease,
until they swarm all over the country. When the salmon return, they
gradually disappear, being destroyed or driven away by their greatest
enemy, the lynx, which first appear in smaller, then in greater
numbers;--both they and their prey disappearing together. As to the
_cause_ that induces those animals to appear and disappear in this
manner, I cannot take upon myself to explain.

In the course of this summer one of our interpreters, a native, lost
his life in rather a singular manner. He had made a bear-trap, and
wishing to ascertain how it would work, tried his own weight on the
spring, which yielded but too readily, and crushed him in so dreadful
a manner that he only survived his experiment but a few hours. As
he had withdrawn from the Company's service this year, his body was
disposed of after the manner of his own people, except that it was
buried instead of being burned; this, however, was the first instance
of an interment, it being introduced through our influence in pity to
the unfortunate widows, who are exposed to the cruellest tortures at
the burning of the body. I never beheld a more affecting scene than
the present. Immediately as the coffin was lowered into the grave, the
widow threw herself upon it, shrieking and tearing her hair, and could
only be removed by main force: several other females, relatives of the
deceased, were also assembled in a group hard by, and evinced all the
external symptoms of extreme grief, chanting the death-song in a most
lugubrious tone, the tears streaming down their cheeks, and beating
their breasts. The men, however, even the brothers of the deceased,
showed no emotion whatever, and as soon as the rites were ended, moved
off the ground, followed by the female mourners, who soon after were
seen as gay and cheerful as if they had returned from a wedding. The
widow, however, still remained by the grave, being obliged to do so
in conformity with the customs of her nation, which required that she
should mourn day and night, until the relatives of the deceased should
collect a sufficiency of viands to make a feast in honour of his
bones.

As already observed, the bodies were formerly burned; the relatives of
the deceased, as well as those of the widow, being present, all armed;
a funeral pile was erected, and the body placed upon it. The widow
then set fire to the pile, and was compelled to stand by it, anointing
her breast with the fat that o