Daily national Democrat., 1859-11-13
Fraser River.

Our fIiend. Lance Nightingale, who has
lately returned from Fraser river, gives q
very impressive description Of the sights that
he saw and the realities that he experienced
1t is hard old country. he says, to live in.
Some gold. but difficult to get. The winter is
awful Unless a due supply of provisions
is laid up during the summer and Hutum.
starvation is the inevitable consequence.
Hundreds of Indians starved during the pc
riod in which he was located on Fraser. They
had calculated on getting provisions from the
whites, and so neglected their usual fishing
for Salmon. When the winter came, the
whites were scant Of provisions. having bare
ly enough for themselves, and many Of the
Indians starved to death. 1t was a pitiful
sight to see human beings lying PROSTATE.
begging for something to eat. wasting to
seletons. and expiring daily. when to relieve
them was only to ensure a like fate to the
benevolent donor.
To relate the numerous narrow escapes
from sndden death made 10y our Marysyile
hero would occupy columns. On one Occa-
sion, he scaled precipice of rock and ice,
fifty feet in height, in order to get out Of a
deep canyon through which rolled danger
Gus tributary Of the Fraser river. over the
surface of which he had travelled on ice un-
Ill the covering broke and was about to sub
merge him into unknown depths Clinging
to his fingers and toes, with the fearful gulf
yawning beneath him, he several times made
up his mind that it was the last of earth for
him. His journeyings through tribes of hos
tile Indians are not the least interesting Of
his recollections, and when we hear him re-
late his adventures, we wonder that he sur
vies to tell the tale.
Curious to know something Of the charac-
ter Of the native denizens Of those regions,
we made inquiries relative thereto. and OBJ
tained interesting information, bare portion
of which We will give. The tribes farthest
North are fine race of people. tall, well
| formed, athletic, and withal intelligent
Many of the women are beautiful. Their
complexion. owing to the northern climate.
is quite fair. especially as compared to the
more Southern Indians. The Flat Head In
dians, about whom great deal Of curiosity
has been excited and especially among Phre-
nOlOgists-are low. miserable lazy. and un-
intellectual race. They resemble, more than
any other tribes Of those regions, the misera-
bIe Diggers Of California, and are despised as
much 10y the other Indians as by the whites
The more northern tribes are very skill
ful in the making Of artistic whimsicalities,
such as wooden men in all sorts Of positions.
birds bills adapted to curious purposes hu-
man faces distorted with all sorts of intolera-
ble expressions, animals of singular conforma.
tion and numerous twisted, interlaced and in
volyed cuttings and carvings, in wood and
stone As general thing. he Gays. the In
dians are very treacherous, seeming to re-
gard white men as their natural enemies. |
He speaks of the Indians whom he himself
for the most part saw-that is those high up
on the Fraser river.
After Lance's hard times, and strange ad-
ventures among the John Bulls, black and
white bears. sliding ice, frozen streams and
hostile Indians Of the Fraser river region, we
are glad tn see him once again, as he has
been for week or SO past, upon the old
familiar streets of Marysville.