How did West Coast natives preserve fish?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: West Coast natives preserved fish by drying and smoking. The method the test wants is therefore drying and smoking — together, not one alone.

The setting is the wider Aboriginal economic landscape Discover Canada describes. The guide writes: "The native people lived off the land, some by hunting and gathering, others by raising crops." Then it sketches several distinct ways of life: "The Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes region, like the Iroquois, were farmers and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers. The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd. The Inuit lived off Arctic wildlife. West Coast natives preserved fish by drying and smoking." Each region has its own answer; for the West Coast, fish — preserved by drying and smoking — is the central food strategy in Discover Canada's account.

Drying and smoking are an effective combination for the West Coast environment. Discover Canada notes only this method for preserving fish there — and pairs the description with the broader observation that Aboriginal groups across what is now Canada developed regionally appropriate ways of life. Salting, freezing in caves, and boiling-and-storing are not described in the guide's account of West Coast preservation.

This passage also hints at the longer arc of European contact described elsewhere. Discover Canada notes that "warfare was common among Aboriginal groups as they competed for land, resources and prestige," and that the arrival of European traders, missionaries, soldiers and colonists eventually "changed the native way of life forever." The pre-contact West Coast practice of drying and smoking fish is part of the world that European arrival began to transform.

The question is testing whether new citizens have noticed a small but specific factual detail in Discover Canada. The guide names exactly one preservation method for West Coast natives: "drying and smoking." The right test answer combines both verbs.

The wrong answer choices each invent a method Discover Canada does not use for the West Coast. There is no mention of freezing in caves, salting, or boiling and storing in the guide's account of pre-contact West Coast life. The only described method is drying and smoking.