394 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



with a covering of deer's sinews. The arrows are of reed, and. 

 have a head made of obsidian, which is a transparent, vitreous 

 substance of volcanic origin, in appearance very similar to a 

 coarse quality of glass. The arrow-head^ are made two inches 

 long, half an inch wide, an eighth of an inch thick, with a very 

 sharp point and sharp edges. The head is fastened in a split 

 of the shaft of the arrow by tying with deer sinews. Such an 

 arrow-head can be used but once, for the obsidian is as brittle 

 as glass and breaks at the first shock. Some tribes in the 

 northern part of the state, poison their an'ows by irritating a 

 rattlesnake and then thrusting forward a fresh deer's liver, 

 which it will bite. After it has bitten repeatedly, and thrown 

 some of its poison at every bite into the liver, the latter is 

 buried and allowed to putrefy. It is then dug up, the arrow- 

 head is dipped in it and allowed to dry. An arrow thus 

 poisoned will kill a man, a horse, or an ox in twenty-four 

 hours, or less time ; and it is said that the meat of an animal 

 thus killed maybe eaten with safety. I know that the Indians 

 do eat the meat of animals killed with poisoned arrows, but I 

 am not positive that the poison was prepared in this manner. 

 The poison of the rattlesnake is not injurious when taken into 

 a sound stomach ; it is only when injected into the blood that 

 its injurious influences are felt. The arrows, even when not 

 poisoned, make very dangerous wounds, for the sinew used to 

 fasten the head soon softens, and allows the head to remain 

 when the shaft is pulled out. 



The Indians are very familiar with the habits of wild ani- 

 mals. They know precisely the character of the brushwood 

 and ravines in which the deer and bear hide during the day, 

 and the places to which they go to feed in the morning and 

 evening. In hunting deer and antelope, in places where there 

 is grass eighteen inches or two feet high, the Indian will often 

 hold the skull and horns of a buck deer before him, and thus 

 crawl within bow-shot. The Pit River Indians dig pits about 

 five feet cubic and cover them with brush and grass, and thus 

 catch deer, hares, and so forth. For catching wild geese, vari- 



