They had a very efficient system of quickly spreading important news by relays of special couriers, who took the news to the first stations or tribes in different directions, where others took the verbal dispatches and ran to the next station, and so on, so that all tribes within an area of a hundred miles would get the good or bad tidings within a few hours. In this manner important communication was kept up between the different tribes. They also had well organized signal systems, by fires in the night and smoke by day, on high points of observation--variations in the lights (either steady, bright or flashing) indicating somewhat the character of the tidings thus given. DWELLINGS. Their winter huts, or _o'-chums_, as they termed them, were invariably of a conical form, made with small poles, and covered with the bark of the incense cedar (_Libocedrus decurrens_). A few poles ten or twelve feet long were set in the ground around an area of about twelve feet in diameter, with their tops inclined together. The outside was then closely covered with long strips of the cedar bark, making it perfectly water-tight. An opening was left on the south side for an entrance, which could be readily closed with a portable door. An opening was also left at the top for the escape of the smoke, a fire being kindled in the center inside. [Illustration: _Drawing by Jorgensen_. INDIAN O'-CHUM. This style of house, made of cedar poles covered with bark, is more easily heated than any other form of dwelling known.] One of these huts would hold a family of a half-dozen persons, with all their household property, dogs included; and there is no other form of a single-room dwelling that can be kept warm and comfortable in cold weather with so little fire, as this Indian _o'-chum._ Their under-bedding usually consisted of the skins of bears, deer, antelope or elk, and the top covering was a blanket or robe made of the skins of small fur-bearing animals, such as rabbits, hares, wildcats and foxes. The skins were cut in narrow strips, which were loosely twisted so as to bring the fur entirely around on the outside, and then woven into a warp of strong twine made of the fine, tough, fibrous bark of a variety of milkweed (_Asclepias speciosa_). These fur robes were very warm, and were also used as wraps when traveling in cold weather. During the warm summer season they generally lived outside in brush arbors, and used their _o'-chums_ as storage places. CLOTHING.