CHAPTER XXXIII. 
THE MI’-WOK. 
By much the largest nation in California, both in population and in 
extent of territory, is the Miwok, whose ancient dominion extended from 
the snow-line of the Sierra Nevada to the San Joaquin River, and from the 
Cosumnes to the Fresno. When we reflect that the mountain valleys were 
thickly peopled as far east as Yosemite (in summer, still further up), and 
consider the great extent and fertility of the San Joaquin plains, which 
to-day produce a thousand bushels of wheat for every white inhabitant, 
old and young, in certain districts; then add to this the long and fish-full 
streams, the Mokelumne, the Stanislaus, the Tuolumne, the Merced, the 
Chowchilla, and the San Joaquin encircling all, along whose banks the 
Indians anciently dwelt in multitudes, we shall see what a capacity there 
was to support a dense population. Even the islands of the San Joaquin 
were made to sustain their quota, for on Feather Island there are said to be 
the remains of a populous village. The rich alluvial lands along the lower 
Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced contained the heart of the nation, and 
were probably the seat of the densest population of ancient California. 
And yet, broadly extended as it was, and feeble or wholly lacking as 
was the feeling of national unity, this people possess a language more 
homogeneous than many others not half so widely ramified. An Indian 
may start from the upper end of Yosemite and travel with the sun 150 
miles, a great distance to go in California without encountering a new 
tongue, and on the San Joaquin make himself understood with little diffi- 
culty. Another may journey from the Cosumnes southward to the Fresno, 
crossing three rivers which the timid race had no means of ferrying over 
but casual logs, and still hear the familiar numerals with scarcely the 
change of a syllable, and he can sit down with a new-found acquaintance 
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