914 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 494. 



rapidly, that I have felt it a duty to stop, 

 whenever practicable, long enough to se- 

 cure short vocabularies and find out who 

 the various people are. Some are now on 

 the verge of extinction and several are rep- 

 resented by only one or two living indi- 

 viduals. It is obvious, therefore, that 

 whatever is to be learned from them must 

 be learned at once. 



Persons unfamiliar with this kind of 

 work may be interested to know that the 

 classification of tribes and stocks is based 

 wholly on language. In most cases the 

 numerals alone are sufficient for the pur- 

 pose, but it is well not to rely on them too 

 implicitly, for in certain cases they, as well 

 as many other words, are strongly affected 

 by contact with neighboring tribes. This 

 is particularly true of remnants of tribes 

 whose altered conditions have brought them 

 into friendly intercourse with tribes with 

 whom they were not formerly on terms of 

 intimacy. Thus members of two disap- 

 pearing California tribes (Ko-ko-he'-ba and 

 Kosh-sho'-o) at first gave me numerals be- 

 longing to different linguistic families from 

 those to which they respectively belong; 

 but when their attention was called to the 

 matter they promptly corrected the mis- 

 take. In another class of cases the effects 

 of contact are so firmly incorporated into 

 the language that the persons speaking do 

 not realize that they are using borrowed 

 words. Thus the Pakanepul of Kern Val- 

 ley, assumed to be of Paiute origin because 

 four of their numerals (2, 3, 5 and 6) and 

 a few other words resemble or suggest those 

 of the Paiutes, gave for 7 the Yokut word 

 num-cliin. This was not an accidental use 

 of the word, for it was given me by three 

 persons at different camps. Besides the 

 numerals, it has been my practice to collect 

 terms of relationship, names of animals and 

 plants, and vocabularies of several hundred 

 of what seem to be the more important 

 words. 



In the Sierra region the distribution of 

 tribes conforms closely with certain faunal 

 belts. The higher and colder belt, com- 

 prising the Boreal zones, is not inhabited, 

 and only a few tribes go so high as the 

 lower half of the Transition zone, most of 

 them living in the Upper Sonoran or 

 Digger-pine belt, which occupies the loAver 

 slopes and foothills. All the way from 

 Sacramento canyon to Tehachapi, a dis- 

 tance of about 500 miles, fully 95 per cent, 

 of the Sierra Indians dwell in this life 

 zone. Most of the tribes live wholly within 

 it and not one lives wholly above it. 



The Southern Pacific Railroad crosses 

 the Sierra Nevada between the Yuba and 

 American Rivers in the territory of the 

 Nis-se-non (or Nishinam), a branch of the 

 so-called Midu (Mi-doo) stock. The Nis- 

 senon reach from Bear River on the north 

 to the Cosumne River on the south. South 

 of the Cosumne are the Mu-wa, called by 

 Powell 'Moquelumnan. ' The Muwa are one 

 of the largest stocks in California. Their 

 territory embraces the Upper Sonoran and 

 lower half of the Transition zone of the 

 west flank of the middle Sierra from the 

 Cosumnes to Fresno Creek— a distance of 

 110 miles. 



South of the Muwa, and rfinging from 

 Fresno Creek to Kern Lake and Tehachapi 

 Basin, are tribes of two widely different 

 linguistic families — Yo-kut and Pai-ute. 

 These tribes are arranged in the main in 

 parallel belts, the Yokuts occupying the 

 lower and more westerly country, the Pai- 

 iites the higher and more easterly. But 

 there is this important difference: The 

 Yokut tribes are numerous, and until the 

 confiscation of their lands by the whites 

 their distribution was continuous, while the 

 Paiute tribes are few and their distribution 

 is and always was interrupted by broad 

 intervals. Powers recognized the general 

 facts that the Indians of tliis part of Cali- 

 fornia belong in the main to the Yokut and 



