EXTRACTS. 301 



will capsize. It is used principally in fishing, for which purpose they employ 

 a three-pronged gig pointed with bone. They show much more skill in balancing 

 themselves in the boat than they do in making it." (Page 394). 



Powers (Stephen?): The Indians of Western Nevada ; Manuscript in possession 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology* [Pai-ute]. "A kind of balsa or raft is made of 

 tule for fishing-purposes on Pyramid Lake. They select stalks which are ten 

 or twelve feet long, and bind them firmly with willow-twigs into fusiform 

 sheaves or bundles ; two of these bundles make the outside of the raft, and be- 

 tween them is another one, smaller and of uniform thickness throughout. The 

 ends of the raft are a little turned up, and sticks are thrust horizontally through 

 the three bundles, to keep them stiff and level on the waves. This raft is pro- 

 pelled with a pole, which, when not in use, is retained on the raft by being thrust 

 through loops in the willow-twigs. It will carry one or two men." 



" The Pai-Ute at Pyramid Lake are tribally named from the fish they chiefly 

 eat the M-yu-wi, probably a species of carp, but commonly called by the Amer- 

 icans a sucker. It is caught in great quantities in the winter season, when 

 ascending the Truckee River j- to spawn. I have seen two Indians bring in, early 

 in October, two large horse-loads probably two hundred pounds as the product 

 of twenty-four hours' labor with a throw-line. A single Indian has been known 

 to make twenty-five dollars a day, for a short period, catching these fish and 

 selling them in Wadsworth. The night is a favorite time for fishing ; the Indian 

 sometimes lies on his face in a booth or on his tule raft, peering down into the 

 water, and whenever he sees a fish glide over a white stone at the bottom, reveal- 

 ing itself plainly, he thrusts it through with a spear. But the spear is less em- 

 ployed than the hook, the net, and the throw-line. The hook, .whether large or 

 small, is made by lashing a sharp piece of bone to a shaft of grease-wood at a 

 nearly right angle ; this is baited with a minnow or a piece of flesh, and some- 

 times rubbed over with the aromatic seeds of a certain plant, powdered ; and 

 when the fish swallows it, the hook turns crossways in the throat. A number of 

 these are fastened by snoods, at regular intervals, to a line with a sinker at the 

 end, which is thrown out into the water, while the other end is tied to some object 

 ashore, constituting what is known in the Western States as a throw-line or a 

 ' trot-line.'} 



" Various kinds of nets are made of the fibre of the common milkweed 

 (Asclepias), very ingeniously twisted on the thigh, and woven with a bobbin. 

 Men and women both work in cutting up and drying the fish when a heavy catch 

 has been made. The fish is cut open along the back, on both sides of the back- 

 bone, which is lifted out, but left attached at the head ; the latter is not removed." 



* This manuscript was kindly placed at my disposal by Major J. W. Powell. 



j- It flows into Pyramid Lake. 



J Probably a corruption of "trawl-line." 



