CHAPTER XIV. 
THE YU-KI. 
To the traveler arriving on the summit between Eden Valley and the 
Middle Eel River, looking north, there is presented one of the most beauti- 
ful and picturesque landscapes in California. The name, ‘Round Valley”, 
is descriptive of this noble domain, and there it lies, far below and beyond, 
an ocean of yellow grain and pasture fields, islanded with stately groves of 
white oak and encompassed on all sides with a coronal of blue, far-sloping 
mountains, dappled green and golden with wild-oat glades and shredded 
forest or chaparral. There is something rich and generous, like ripened 
corn and wine, in the landscapes of the Coast Range in autumn, and over 
all bends the soft sky of Italy, and pours the wonderful lilac chiaroscuro of 
the atmosphere, which lends an inexpressible charm. 
Here in the heart of the lofty Eel River Mountains, which shut it in 
sixty or seventy miles from all the outer world, was a little Indian cockagne, 
a pure democracy, fierce and truculent. The inhabitants of this valley, 
unequaled in its loveliness by all that is said or sung of the Vale of Cash- 
mere—the Yuki—were indisputably the worst tribe among the California 
Indians. 
I had a great deal of trouble in finding this singular people. I heard 
about “Yuki” over in the Sacramento Valley, at Weaverville, on Hay 
Fork, on Mad River, on Van Dusen’s Fork, and all along Eel River, and 
always the “Yuki” were to be the next tribe that I would come upon. 
At last I began to be skeptical of their very existence, and smiled an incred- 
ulous smile whenever I heard the name “Yuki” mentioned. 
’ The reason for this is curious. The word yuki in the Wintin lan- 
guagesignifies “‘ stranger”, and hence, secondarily, ‘‘bad Indian” or “thief”; 
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