316 THE NISHINAM. 
euphonious to their ears. If one has any meaning it is generally the name 
of some animal. 
Following is a formidable list of villages which once lined the banks 
of Bear River from Sacramento up to the foot-hills, a list whieh shows that 
the population must have been dense: Ha’-mi-ting-Wo’-li-yuh, Le’-li-ki- 
an, Ta’-lak, In’-tan-to, Mu-lam’-cha-pa (long pond by the trees), Lid’-li- 
pa, So’-lak-i-yu, Ka’-lu-plo, Pa’-kan-chi, Sho-kum-im/’-lep-pi (wild potato 
place), Bu’-sha-mul (this was near the California and Oregon railroad 
crossing), Shu’-ta-mtl, Chu’-em-duh, O’pel-to (the forks), Pu’-lak-a-tu, 
Ka/-pa-ka, Yo-ko’-lim-duh and Toan’-im-but-tuk (little pie). 
These are, in fact, only the names of localities where camps once stood; 
and the list may not include a half or a third of all the camp-sites which an 
old Indian of good memory could recall. On Bear River, and in fact 
along all the low bottom-lands in the Sacramento Valley, there are fre-~ 
quently to be seen flat, wide mounds which were raised by the Indians for 
house-sites to keep them above the reach of floods in the rainy season. 
It is often asserted by Californians that the malarial diseases now prev- 
alent along Bear River and other streams in the great interior basin date 
only back to the beginning of the mining operations, which caused great 
masses of débris to accumulate in the river-beds, thereby throwing the water 
out over the lowlands. On the contrary, it is asserted by the earliest pio- 
neers, among others Claude Cheney, who settled on Bear River about 1846, 
that the Indians even at that day were much subject to fever and ague and 
other diseases resulting from malarial influences. To avoid these they not 
only built the low mounds for their houses above mentioned, but the low- 
land-tribes, by permission of those living in the foot-hills and mountains, 
went up into the latter regions to spend a portion of the hotter months of 
the summer. But, of course, it was only a part of any tribe that could 
make this annual migration, and that principally the hunters, for the women 
had to remain behind in sufficient force to gather the wild grain and seeds 
which were their principal food-supply, and which they required for ex- 
change with the mountaineers in return for acorns and mazanita berries. 
And yet, notwithstanding the rather unhealthy condition of the low- 
lands, large families of children were common in early days. 
