Xxiv ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH. 



to produce them. This is true to a certain extent; but as there are so many 

 phuits growing there that narcotize the fish, how is it that the country 

 produces no medical pUints for the cure of men's diseases! Of the plant 

 shie'dsh, at least, they prepare a drink as a sort of tea. 



The fauna of the Klamath uplands appears to be richer in species than 

 the vegetal growth. What first strikes the traveler's attention on the eastern 

 shore of the Upper Lake is the prodigious number of burrows along the 

 sandy road, especially in the timber, varying in size from a few inches to a 

 foot in diameter. Tliey are made by chipnumks of two species, and others 

 are the dens of badgers, or of the blue and the more common brown squirrel. 

 The coyote or prairie-wolf makes burrows also, but this animal has lately 

 become scarce. No game is so frequent as the deer. This is either the 

 black-tail deer, (shua-i, Cervus columhianus), or the white tail deer (miishmush, 

 Cariacus virglnianiis macrurus), or the mule-deer (pakolesh, Cervus macrotis). 

 Less frequent is the antelope (tch(i-u, Antilocapra americana), and most other 

 four-legged game must be sought for now upon distant heights or in the 

 deeper canons, as the elk (vun), the bear in his three varieties (black, cin- 

 namon, and grizzly; witil'm, n/ika, liVk), the lynx (shloa), the gray wolf 

 (ka'-utchish), the silver or red fox (wan), the little gray fox (ketchkatch), 

 the cougar (taslatch), and the mountain sheep (k6-il). Beavers, otters, 

 minks, and woodchucks are trapped by expert Indians on tlie rivers, ponds, 

 and brooklets of the interior. 



The shores of the water-basins are enlivened by innumerable swarms 

 of water-fowls, (mii'makli), as ducks, geese, herons, and cranes. Some can 

 be seen day by day swimming about gracefully or fishing at Modoc Point 

 (Nilakshi) and other promontories, while others ventui-e up the river courses 

 and fly over swampy tracts extending far inland. Among the ducks the 

 more comnion are the mallard (we'ks), the long-necked kilidshiks; among 

 the geese, the brant (lAlak) and the white goose (waiwash). Other water- 

 birds are the white swan (kush), the coot or raudhen (tuhush), the loon 

 (taplal), the pelican (yamal or kumal), and the jjinguin (kuftsiji). Fish- 

 hawks and bald-headed eagles (^ai'ixal) are circling about in the air to 

 catch the fish which are appi'oaching the watei''s surface unaware of danger. 

 Marsh-hawks and other raptores infest the marshes and are lurking there 



