28 Reminiscences of 



was indicated by the removal of deer entrails, which 

 was of frequent occurrence. This was evidenced by a 

 clean removal of the offal, instead of being scattered 

 about, as it would be by coyotes or other animals. 

 The Digger Indian is pretty nearly extinct in the 

 State now, and belongs to the lowest class of aborigines, 

 living on roots, acorns, and offal of ancient date. 

 I have seen them in some parts of the State, whole 

 farnilies, by the hour industriously engaged beneath 

 some spreading pine tree, eating the meagre pit 

 meats of the cones. The native clover flower tops 

 are specially attractive to them, which they will sit 

 among, and fill up their stomachs and skin bags. 

 Grasshoppers they simply revel in and grow fat upon. 

 Some years these are pests of such extent as to 

 devastate large portions of the State, eating every- 

 thing in sight, and are said to impudently ask the 

 distracted farmer for chewing-gum and cigarettes. 

 This season, however, is one of the Diggers' delight. 



The oak groves about me now (my residence in 

 California) were once the habitat of many Digger 

 Indians. No monuments have they left, and all that 

 tells of their existence are the thousands of mortar 

 holes in the flat rocks, many of which still contain 

 the pestles of i-ude form with which they crtished the 

 acorns for bread-making. On many flat rocks there 

 are a dozen or more of mortar holes, large and small, 

 and some of them worn down to a foot in depth, 

 and many hundreds of such mortar holes are to be 

 seen within a radius of a mile from where I am now 

 writing. 



Ten or fifteen years ago a small band of these 

 Indians yearly came about here, but I have not seen 



