THE SHAEP-TAILED GROUSE. 91 



which were hrouglit in fast enough to suit the most 

 insatiable destroyer. I was so much interested in watch- 

 ing, wlien I was not otherwise engaged, a party of Indians 

 who were shooting field mice, ground squirrels, and sage 

 hares, with arrows, that time fled heedlessly by. These 

 red hunters brought the squirrels to the mouths of their 

 burrows by chirping, and the moment they appeared the 

 keen-headed arrow was sent twanging through their 

 skulls or bodies, so that they could not retreat, even if 

 they were only wounded, owing to the length of the 

 shaft. Some of the braves w^ere so expert with their rude 

 weapons that they transfixed a terrified little field mouse 

 on an arrow almost as readily as if it were a buffalo; and I 

 saw a youth bring down a curlew with as much ease as if 

 he had used a shot-gun. These hunting arrows differ from 

 the war arrows in being narrower at the base and quite 

 round, in order to enable persons to pull them out of the 

 flesh quite easily; but the others are broad and square at the 

 same point, so as to render it impossible to withdraw them 

 without causing much pain, or making the wound larger. 

 I reached the river about noon, and there halted, as I 

 wished to watch the actions of some dusky anglers, who 

 were pulling salmon trout out of the water. These splen- 

 did specimens of the streams were caught in baskets which 

 had large mouths and narrow ends, so that any fish en- 

 tering them could not escape unless it backed out, and 

 this it could not do, owing to the force of the current. 

 As fast as a trout was caught it was knocked on the head 

 with a short club, and thrown in a pile with others, un- 

 less a squaw or a child took it away. While some were 

 capturing fish in this manner, others were angling for 

 them with the hook and line and the worms found on the 

 wild sage, and catching them freely, too, as they seemed 

 ready to rise to anything, from a ''gentle" to a bit 

 of red cloth. The boys were as busily engaged as the 

 adults, but their favorite mode of fishing was with a 



