NO. 8 DRAWINGS BY GEORGE GIBBS BUSH NELL 1/ 



Our camp was a very pretty one, the little prairie being level and rich, 

 and encircled by a magnificent redwood forest. One tree near the tents I 

 measured, and found it to be fifty-two feet in circumference, at four or five feet 

 from the ground, and this although the bark and a portion of the wood were 

 liurned away . . . [PI. 14.] 



From September 29 until the morning of October g, the party 

 occupied a camp estabH.shecl at the junction of the Klamath and 

 Trinity Rivers. Gibbs did not make a separate entry for each day 

 spent at the camp, but between the days mentioned devoted much 

 time to the study of the Indians with whom he was in contact. Many 

 tribes were represented at the gathering, possessing similar manners 

 and ways of life. To quote briefly (p. 139) : 



With regard to their form of government, at least that of the Klamath and 

 Trinity tribes, the mow-ce-ma, or head of each family, is master of his own 

 house, and there is a sci-as-lau, or chief, in every village . . . The lodges of 

 these Indians are generally very well built ; being made of boards riven from 

 redwood or fir, and of considerable size, often reaching twenty feet square. The 

 roofs are pitched over a ridge-pole, and sloping each way ; the ground being usually 

 excavated to the depth of three or four feet, and a pavement of smooth stones 

 laid in front. The cellars of the better class are also floored and walled with 

 stone. The door always consists of a round hole in a heavy plank, just 

 sufficient to admit the body ; and is formed with a view to exclude the bears, 

 who in winter make occasional and very unwelcome visits. 



The people were descril)ed as being superior to an}- previously met, 



and with countenances denoting greater force and energy of character, as well 

 as intelligence . . . The superiority, however, was especially manifested in the 

 women, many of whom were exceedingly pretty ; having large almond-shaped 

 eyes, sometimes of a hazel color . . . their only dress the fringed petticoat, or 

 at most, a deer-skin robe thrown back over the shoulders, in addition. The 

 petticoat with the wealthier, or perhaps more industrious, was an affair on 

 which great taste and labor were expended. It was of dressed deer-skin ; the 

 upper edge turned over and embroidered with colored grasses, the lower cut 

 into a deep fringe, reaching nearly to the knee, and ornamented with bits of 

 sea-shell, beads, and buttons . . . The same round basket-cap noticed before, 

 is worn by the Klamath women [/». c, fig. 3], figures of different colors and 

 patterns being worked into it. They tattoo the underlip and chin in the manner 

 remarked at Eel river; the young girls in faint lines, which are deepened and 

 widened as thej- become older, and in the married women are extended up 

 above the corners of the mouth . . . The children are carried in baskets 

 suspended from the head, after the manner shown in the sketch. 



The original sketch to which this refers is reproduced in plate 15, 

 figure I. A picture of a "Young married Woman," also made at 

 the forks of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers, October 6, 1851, is 

 reproduced in plate 15, figure 2. 



