16 INTRODUCTORY. 
or less characteristic of all tongues spoken in warm climates, but most of 
them are also remarkable for their special striving after harmony. There 
are a few languages found in the northern mountains which are harsh and 
sesquipedalian, and some on the upper coast that are guttural beyond the 
compass of cur American organs of speech; but with these few exceptions 
the numerous languages of the State are beautiful for their simplicity, the 
brevity of their words, their melody, and their harmonic sequences. 
The Tinné or Athabascan races extend far into California along the 
coast, reaching to the headwaters of Eel River. The tribes immediately 
around Humboldt Bay probably do not belong to them, but to the Califor- 
nians. The former drove the Californians up the Trinity to the mouth of 
New River. They hold the Smith, the Klamath, Mad, and Eel Rivers 
entire, except the lower reaches of the last two. They also hold Scott 
River. Beginning at the head of this river, the line runs across to Mount 
Shasta; thence to the forks of the Pit; thence up South Fork and down 
along the Sierra to Honey Lake; thence along the western line of the 
double crest (the Wa-sho generally hold the summit meadows) to Alpine 
County. I have not seen the Indians of this county, but they are said to 
belong to the Paiuti. In Southern California the Paiuti tribes have 
pushed down King’s River and the San Joaquin nearly to the plains, and 
down the Kern to its mouth, also through Tahichapa Pass, holding nearly 
the whole Kern Basin. Of the tribes in the Mohave and Colorado Deserts 
I can say very little. 
An accurate distribution of tribes within these limits is a difficult task. 
In the mountain regions where there are certain natural, well-defined ter- 
ritories, as valleys, ete., there are generally names which may be dignified 
as tribal; but on the great plains the Indians become scattered and diffused 
in innumerable little villages or camps, of which it is very seldom the case 
that even two are bound together by a common name. The chiefs could 
not hold them together. Hence, on the plains the only useful boundaries 
are linguistic; and the extent of any given language is generally far 
greater than in the mountains. 
There will be found in these pages no account of the quasi-Christianized 
Indians of the missions Their aboriginal customs have so faded out, their 
