LOCATION AND ENVIRONMENT 3

quantities of ducks and geese, and the inhabitants of the inland
villages sometimes made hunting expeditions to the nesting
places of wild-fowl in the lakes of the interior uplands. Al-
though numbers of birds were sometimes killed in this way,
they were never a steady article of diet. The same is true of
grouse. Always plentiful, these birds were commonly killed,
but never in large numbers.

The basis of the food supply was fish. The river teemed
with salmon, which enabled the country to support its rela-
tively large population. Spring, sockeye, hump-back, dog,
and cohoe salmon, all entered the river in thousands during
the spring and summer, while the steel-head could be caught
throughout the year. They were taken in weirs and their
flesh smoked for winter use. Throughout the year, salmon

was the principal article of diet. Second in importance

was the olachen, a fish somewhat resembling a herring, which
entered the river in great numbers during April or May. They
were taken in purse-like nets,® allowed to rot for ten days or
two weeks, and then boiled. The grease was skimmed off and
kept indefinitely to be used as a relish for other foods. It was
always a sign of poverty if a person were obliged to eat berries
without olachen grease. Trout and bull-heads were found in
the river, but were not sufficiently plentiful to be of importance.

Although no form of agriculture was practised, the Bella
Coola used vegetable food to a considerable extent. Berries
were abundant; some were eaten raw, but many more were
pounded into a pulpy mass and dried in the sun. Cakes
prepared in this way kept indefinitely and formed one of
the regular winter foods. The bark of the hemlock and
cottonwood was eaten, as well as the roots of many plants.
In recent years many of these have not been used, so that
an investigator is apt to overlook their great importance in
early times. Although useless for food, the cedar was the
corner-stone of Bella Coola material culture. From its trunk
were split out, with wedges, the wide planks which formed

8See Appendix A for a description of olachen fishing.