ETHNOLOGY. 459 



meiit by previous agents has dissipated a considerable part of the re- 

 sources of the reservation. The herds have beeu sacrificed, the soil has 

 been depleted, and the Indians who ever think of the future behold the 

 approach of the time when they must disperse to the mountains, or sub- 

 mit to eviction, or be exterminated. The first of these alternatives 

 would not be wholly unwelcome to them ; but a great majority of them 

 would choose war, and would wage it relentlessly rather than submit 

 to the second. The citizens of this region know this well, and they are 

 unalterably opposed to any attempts at removal of the Indians. There 

 is a vast reserve of salmon-fishing grounds on the Klamath and Trinity 

 Eivers, as well as acorn-bearing forests along their banks, which will 

 not for years, if ever, be occupied by the whites to anything near their 

 capacity for sustaining population ; which are so useless for civilized 

 dwellers, and so congenial and productive to savages, that it would be 

 a pity ever to remove either the Klamaths or the Hoopas to any other 

 region. All the Indians in the upper half of California could be health- 

 fully lodged and bountifully fed along the Klamath River, and that al- 

 most wholly on the aboriginal products. 



I returned to San Francisco January 7th, 1876, and was detained there 

 until the 20th, at which time I was enabled to start for home. 



I will conclude this itinerary with a few words on the California Indi- 

 ans in general. Physically considered, they are superior to the Chinese, 

 at least to thjse brought over to America. There is no better proof of 

 this than the wages they receive for labor, for in a free open market 

 like ours a thing will always eventually bring what it is worth. China- 

 men on the railroad receive $1 a day and board themselves ; Indians 

 working in gangs on public roads receive 75 cents a day, sometimes $1, 

 and their board — the whole equal to $1.25 or $1.50. But on the north- 

 ern ranches the Indian has $1.50 to $2 a day and his board, or $1 a day 

 when employed by the year. Farmers trust Indians with valuable 

 teams and complicated agricultural machinery far more than they do 

 the Chinese. The Indian endures the hot and heavy work of the 

 ranch better than even the Canton Chinaman, who comes from a hot 

 climate, but wants an umbrella over his head. In a fight between the 

 Chinaman and the Indian, the Indian will always be the victor. 



The Valley Indians are more willing to labor and are more moral than 

 the Mountain Indians, because the latter have better opportunities to 

 hunt game and can pick up small change and old clothes about the 

 mining camps. 



An erroneous impression generally prevails as to the physique of the 

 California Indians, because the Americans have seen only the wretched 

 remnants of the race, the inferior lowlauders, whereas the nobler and 

 more valorous mountaineers were early cut off. Old pioneers, especially 

 on the upper waters of the Trinity and the higher foothills of the Sierra, 

 have frequently spoken with enthusiasm of giants they had seen in 

 early days, weighing 180, 200, and even 250 pounds ; tall, line fellows, not 



