I 



256 Notes on Upper California. 



either side, which were extremely rugged and broken. Talcose 

 rocks prevailed along the route ; they were sometimes thin slaty, 

 and often compact. The latter passed into a compact rock of a 

 bluish-green or grayish-green color, giving a light greenish tint to 



the water, when forming the bed of the river. The river was 

 still a rapid stream ; it was about eighty yards wide, and averaged 

 four feet in depth. The rocks stood up in jagged points, and the 

 hill-sides were covered with angular fragments. One hill con- 

 sisted of protogine, a granite-like rock composed of feldspar, 

 quartz and dark olive-green talc, in rather coarse grains, and con- 

 taining some spots of compact talcose rock. It was nearly white 

 in color, and much disposed to crumble. 



October 10. — After three hours' travelling, the last hour over an 

 undulating region densely strewed with pebbles, among which 

 few blades of grass found place, we reached the summit of a ter- 

 raced slope sixty feet high, and looked over the wide plains of 

 the Sacramento. This terrace was visible far southward; and 

 also to the northward and eastward it formed a distinct border to 

 the river flats. The distance to the river was estimated at about 

 1200 yards. After passing 700 yards there was a second descent 

 of six feet, and 400 yards beyond another of eight feet : 100 feet 

 from the last the river was running along beneath banks twelve 



feet high. We 



terrace belonged properly to the river banks, twenty feet being 

 their prevailing height. It was an example of a plain formed by 

 the wearing action of the river floods below the usual height of 

 the bottom land, and served as a caution against considering 

 every terrace observed as proof of a distinct change of level. 

 The soil of the lower prairie was rather pebbly. 



We 



by numbers of Indians. They had thick bushy hair, descending 

 low on the forehead ; in some it was parted along the ridge of 

 the head, and hung down on the shoulders, while in others it 

 was divided either side, and that of the top from the forehead to 

 just back of the crown was collected together and tied with a 

 string of deer-skin. A loop of the same kind, sometimes with a 

 bead upon it, and about two inches long, was tied in the ear. 

 The Indians were mostly quite naked. A few had a deer-skin, 

 raw or dressed, thrown over one shoulder, or tied around the 

 loins. Their faces were usually pinted with black or brownish 

 red paint ; some with the forehead black, and a black triangle 

 covering nearly all of each cheek, one angle being at the mouth ; 

 others had the ochre put on in zigzag lines over the forehead 

 and cheeks, or in spots with zigzag margins. The women had 

 the lower part of the face, below the line of the mouth, tattooed. 

 The features were more regular than with the Chinooks o( the 

 Columbia river ; the cheek bones but moderately prominent : the 



