Tour of the Gold-fields 213' 



quarter of a very poor beef at an abominable price, 

 and he turned to me with a pitiful expression, and 

 asked if he ought to let it go for so small a price, 

 showing me an ounce of gold. All Indian trad- 

 ing appears to be done in the same way, make them 

 presents, and then charge double the value of the 

 gift, on the first article they buy. 



The food of these Indians is chiefly the "payote" 

 made from the acorns into a kind of gruel, rather 

 astringent to the taste of the white man, but to an 

 Indian digestion all seems good that can be swal- 

 lowed. 



I saw a papoose, too small to walk, with a stone 

 in his hand half as big as his head, shelling out 

 the nuts of the pine-cone, cracking and eating them 

 with the judgment of a monkey, and looking very 

 much like one. 



Their wigwams faced the south, and formed an 

 irregular cluster of bark and mud cones; the usual 

 number of fox- and wolf-like dogs gave the same 

 effect that I am accustomed to, but the tribe is not 

 as handsome as the Indians of the east, or 

 even the Yumas, Pimos, or the Maricopas on 

 the Gila. 



Leaving Cayote diggings, the trail for five miles 

 passes between two moderately high ridges to 

 Carson's Creek, where the soil changes to a much 

 poorer quality; crossing the creek we ascended a 

 fairly high hill, from which I took a sketch across 



