STEEP TRAILS 



north side of the mountain, wheat, apples, mel- 

 ons, berries, all the best production of farm and 

 garden growing and ripening there at the foot of 

 the great white cone, which seems at times dur- 

 ing changing storms ready to fall upon them — 

 the most sublime farm scenery imaginable. 



The Indians of the McCloud River that 

 have come under my observation differ con- 

 siderably in habits and features from the Dig- 

 gers and other tribes of the foothills and plains, 

 and also from the Pah Utes and Modocs. They 

 live chiefly on salmon. They seem to be closely 

 related to the Tlingits of Alaska, Washington, 

 and Oregon, and may readily have found their 

 way here by passing from stream to stream in 

 which salmon abound. They have much bet- 

 ter features than the Indians of the plains, and 

 are rather wide awake, speculative and ambi- 

 tious in their way, and garrulous, like the 

 natives of the northern coast. 



Before the Modoc War they lived in dread 

 of the Modocs, a tribe living about the Kla- 

 math Lake and the Lava Beds, who were in the 

 habit of crossing the low Sierra divide past the 

 base of Shasta on freebooting exciursions, steal- 

 ing wives, fish, and weapons from the Pitts and 

 McClouds. Mothers would hush their children 

 by telUng them that the Modocs would catch 

 them. 



42 



