EXTRACTS. 299 



the fish are stupefied, when they easily scoop them up, and the poison will not 

 affect the tough stomach of the aborigines." (Page 116, etc.). 



[The Makhelchel ; Clear Lake]. " They construct boats of tule,* with indif- 

 ferent skill. First, two or three long tule-stalks are sewed together for a keel, 

 and hammered hard. Then others are laid alongside of them, each one over- 

 lapping the last a little in length, sewed on and beaten. When finished the 

 bottom is twenty or thirty feet long, elliptical in shape, sharp at the ends, three 

 or four layers of tule thick, and all hammered hard and water-tight. The sides 

 are then built up perpendicular, but only one or two tules thick, and not ribbed. 

 After being in the water awhile the thick bottom becomes water-logged, and if 

 the boat is capsized it rights itself in an instant, like a loaded cork. One of these 

 boats will last five years, and carry several men or a ton of merchandise in a 

 heavy sea. The Makhelchel are bold watermen and skillful fishers. Yet they 

 take most of their fish in the creeks in spring, which they frequently do by 

 treading on them Avith their naked feet in the crevices of the rocks." (Page 

 215, etc.). 



[The Wintun ; Upper Sacramento and Upper Trinity Rivers]. "They 

 are as remarkable as all Californians for their fondness for being in, and their 

 daily lavatory use of, cold water. They are almost amphibious, or were before 

 they were pestered with clothing. Merely to get a drink they would wade in 

 and dip or toss the water up with their hands. They would dive many feet for 

 clams, remain down twice as long as an American could, and rise to the surface 

 with one or more in each hand and one in the mouth. Though I have never 

 given special attention to the singular shell-mounds which occur in this State, I 

 have often thought they might have been originated by an ancient race of divers 

 like these Wintim. I am not aware that the latter accumulate the shells in 

 mounds, but they are seen scattered in small piles about their riparian camps. 

 In ancient times, two rival rancherias might have striven to collect each the 

 larger heap of shells, as to-day two hunting or fishing parties will carry their 

 friendl}' contention to the verge of fool-hardiness to secure the greater amount of 

 game or fish. 



'• For a fishing-station the Wintun ties together two stout poles in a cross, 

 plants it in deep water, then lays a log out to it from the shore. Standing here, 

 silent and motionless as a statue, with spear poised in the air, he sometimes looks 

 down upon so great a multitude of black-backed salmon slowly warping to and 

 fro in the gentle current, that he could scarcely thrust his spear down without 

 transfixing? one or more. At times, he constructs a booth out over the water, 

 but it is not nearly so ingenious and pretty a structure as those on the Klamath. 

 His spear is very long and slender, often fifteen feet in length, with a joint of 



* Derived from the Aztec word iuUin, signifying a bulrush. 



