This kind of soil extends to a considerable depth, as
may be perceived in the deep cuts made by ravines, and by the beds of
rivers. The vegetation in these valleys is much more abundant than near
the coast; in fact, it is these fertile intervals, locked up between
rocky sierras, or scooped out from barren wastes, that population must
extend itself, as it were, in veins and ramifications, if ever the
regions beyond the mountains should become civilized.
CHAPTER XL.
Natives in the Neighborhood of Astoria--Their Persons and
Characteristics.--Causes of Deformity--Their Dress.--
Their Contempt of Beards--Ornaments--Armor and Weapons.-Mode
of Flattening the Head.--Extent of the Custom.--Religious
Belief.-The Two Great Spirits of the Air and of the Fire.--
Priests or Medicine Men.--The Rival Idols.--Polygamy a Cause
of Greatness-Petty Warfare.--Music, Dancing, Gambling.--
Thieving a Virtue.--Keen Traders--Intrusive Habits--
Abhorrence of Drunkenness--Anecdote of Comcomly.
A BRIEF mention has already been made of the tribes or hordes existing
about the lower part of the Columbia at the time of the settlement; a
few more particulars concerning them may be acceptable. The four tribes
nearest to Astoria, and with whom the traders had most intercourse,
were, as has heretofore been observed, the Chinooks, the Clatsops, the
Wahkiacums, and the Cathlamets.
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