LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 181 



fringed the creeks, and where the deer and bear loved to 

 resort the former to browse on the leaves and tender 

 shoots, the latter to devour the fruit now entirely 

 disappeared, and the only shrub seen was the eternal 

 sage-bush, which flourishes everywhere in the western 

 regions in uncongenial soils where other vegetation 

 refuses to grow. The visible change in the scenery had 

 also a sensible effect on the spirits of the mountaineers. 

 They travelled on in silence through the deserted plains ; 

 the hi-hi-hiya of their Indian chants was no longer heard 

 enlivening the line of march. More than once a Digger 

 of the Piyutah tribe took himself and hair, in safety, 

 from their path, and almost unnoticed ; but as they 

 advanced they became more cautious in their movements, 

 and testified, by the vigilant watch they kept, that they 

 anticipated hostile attacks even in these arid wastes. 

 They had passed without molestation through the 

 country infested by the bolder Indians. The mountain 

 Yutas, not relishing the appearance of the hunters, had 

 left them unmolested ; but they were now entering a 

 country inhabited by the most degraded and abject of 

 the western tribes ; who, nevertheless, ever suffering 

 from the extremities of hunger, have their brutish wits 

 sharpened by the necessity of procuring food, and rarely 

 fail to levy a contribution of rations, of horse or mule 

 flesh, on the passenger in their inhospitable country. 

 The brutish cunning and animal instinct of these 

 wretches is such, that although arrant cowards, their 

 attacks are more feared than those of bolder Indians. 

 These people called the Yamparicas or Boot Diggers 



