NARRATIVE AND ITINERARY — KLAMATH MARSH — INDIANS. 



69 



consisting mostly of seeds of water plants and dried fish, several canoes made of hollowed logs, 

 many baskets formed of reeds curiously woven together, and divers other valuables, were scat- 

 tered around in wild confusion. The fires were burning in front of the huts, of which there 

 were three distinct kinds. The summer lodges had vertical walls supporting flat roofs. They 

 were composed of a framework of sticks, covered with a matting of woven tule. The winter huts 

 were shaped like bee-hives, and made of sticks plastered with mud. We noticed only one of the 

 third kind, which was apparently used for a council house. A hole, about four feet deep and ten 

 feet square, had been excavated, and the earth heaped up around the sides. Large sticks planted 

 in this mud wall supported a roof made of cross poles covered with earth. The entrance was 

 by a flight of mud steps that conducted to the roof, from which a rude ladder led through a 

 hole to the floor below. Each of these structures is represented in the accompanying wood cuts 

 together with some conical graves described below. 



The dusky inmates of the rancheria had betaken themselves to their canoes, and retreated 

 among the tule to what they considered a safe distance. They now stood, yelling like fiends 

 and shaking their weapons at us in impotent rage. Strict orders had been given that none of 

 their property should be injured ; and we passed rapidly along the shore of the marsh, sur- 

 prising a new rancheria at almost every turn. The number of these savages is very large ; 

 and nature has given them so secure a retreat, that only a greatly superior force provided with 

 boats, could attack them to advantage. They paddled through openings among the tule, and 

 thus accompanied us, uttering hideous howls when the labor of working their passage did not 

 keep them quiet. We passed on the way one of their burial places. The bodies had been 

 doubled up, and placed in a sitting posture in holes. The earth, when replaced, formed conical 

 mounds over the heads. Near the other graves, but on a slight eminence, stood a new wall- 

 tent, such as is used in our service. It was regularly pitched and the front tied up. On look- 



