stands behind the fisherman to assist
in raising the haul,--to give the fish a tap on the nose, which kills
him instantly,--and finally to carry him ashore to be split and dried,
without any danger of his throwing himself back into the water from the
hands of his captors, as might easily happen by omitting the
_coup-de-grace_. Another method of catching salmon, much in vogue among
the Sacramento and Pitt-River tribes, but apparently less employed by
the Indians of the Columbia, is harpooning with a very clever instrument
constructed after this wise. A hard-wood shaft is neatly, but not
tightly, fitted into the socket of a sharp-barbed spear-head carved from
bone. Through a hole drilled in the spear-head a stout cord of
deer-sinew is fastened by one end, its other being secured to the shaft
near its insertion. The salmon is struck by this weapon in the manner of
the ordinary fish-spear; the head slips off the shaft as soon as the
barbs lodge, and the harpoon virtually becomes a fishing-rod, with the
sinew for a line. This arrangement is much more manageable than the
common spear, as it greatly diminishes the chances of losing fish and
breaking shafts.

There can scarcely be a more sculpturesque sight than that of a finely
formed, well-grown young Indian struggling on his scaffold with an
unusually powerful fish. Every muscle of his wiry frame stands out in
its turn in unveiled relief, and you see in him attitudes of grace and
power which will not let you regret the Apollo Belvedere or the
Gladiator. The only pity is that this ideal Indian is a rare being. The
Indians of this coast and river are divided into two broad classes,--the
Fish Indians, and the Meat Indians. The latter, _ceteris paribus_, are
much the finer race, derive the greater portion of their subsistence
from the chase, and possess the athletic mind and body which result from
active methods of winning a livelihood. The former are, to a great
extent, victims of that generic and hereditary _tabes mesenterica_ which
produces the peculiar pot-bellied and spindle-shanked type of savage;
their manners are milder; their virtues and vices are done in
water-color, as comports with their source of supply. There are some
tribes which partake of the habits of both classes, living in
mountain-fastnesses part of the year by the bow and arrow, but coming
down to the river in the salmon-season for an addition to their winter
bill-of-fare. Anywhere rather than among the pur