4-8 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



smooth hair. The gradations of colour, the 

 languages, which are radically different from each 

 other ; the mode of life, arts, arms, in some of 

 them various lines tattooed about the chin and 

 neck, the way in which they paint themselves for war 

 and for the dance, distinguish the different tribes. 

 They live among the Spaniards, and among them- 

 selves in different, friendly, or hostile relations. 

 Among many of them their arms consist of bows 

 and arrows ; some of these are of extraordinary ele- 

 gance, the bows light and strong, and covered with 

 the sinews of animals on the convex side ; among 

 others it is merely of wood, and rudely made : some 

 possess the art (women's work) of constructing 

 neat and water-proof vessels of coloured blades of 

 grass ; but the Indian, for the most part, forgets his 

 industry in the missions. They all go naked. They 

 do not possess horses nor canoes of any kind ; they 

 only know how to fasten together bundles of rushes, 

 which carry them over the water by their compa- 

 rative lightness. Those who live near rivers subsist 

 principally on salmon, which they catch in baskets ; 

 those in the mountains on wild fruits and grain. 

 They neither sow nor reap, but burn their mea- 

 dows from time to time to increase their fertility. 



The South Sea islands, far distant from each 

 other, and dispersed over nearly one-third of the 

 torrid zone, speak one language. In America, here 

 in New California, tribes of one race, living near to 

 each other, speak quite different languages. Every 

 fragment of the history of man is of importance. 



