The Tlingit were a canoe people and might be termed semi-nomadic, as they were on their hunting grounds in the early spring and late fall, while the summer season was spent in the fishing camps by the salmon streams, but notwithstanding these long absences they built substantial villages where, except for social activities, they spent the winter in comparative idleness. [Illustration: Fig. 3. Con-nuh-ta-di Grave Houses, Kluckwan.] As they looked to the sea for their principal food supply, their villages were directly on the shore just above the high water mark, in sheltered coves where they could land and launch their canoes in any weather and at any stage of the tide. But the Chilkat, differing from all of the other Tlingit, lived just beyond the open water, in a rather restricted territory, on rivers that were veritable storehouses of food, bringing their abundance of fish life to their very doors, and so permitting them to remain at home throughout the year, except when on their trading trips to the interior, which gave their habitations a more permanent character, and contributed to the unity of communal life. Of the four principal old villages, all of which have survived the ravages of constant strife and the still more deadly by-products of civilization--liquor and disease--Kluckwan (mother town) has always held the first place in size, wealth, and the character of its people. It retained its supremacy long after the larger of the more southern coast villages had gone to decay, as its more interior and isolated position and the independent and aggressive reputation of its population kept white traders at a distance. The discovery of gold near Juneau and the establishment of the several salmon canneries at the mouth of the river drew away its people, and communal life in the large old houses, that was dependent upon the united efforts of the whole household was made impossible by the absence of many, and the want of cooperation of others who elected to live by themselves. With the introduction of schools and the efforts of missionaries to break up the old customs, the village has undergone a complete change and the old houses have disappeared or have been modernized.