CALIFORNIA. 203 



gold very properly stopped them from firing, and endeavours were 

 made to recapture him, but without effect. These efforts having 

 failed, they took to their boats, and pulled down the stream. The 

 Indians who were on the banks, to the number of two hundred and 

 fifty, made no demonstrations of hostility. 



Platforms similar to those erected by the Indians for spearing 

 salmon, were passed along the river banks. 



Having stopped at the same camp at the Poplar. Grove, as on the 

 28th, they took a few hours' amusement in hunting. Each person 

 who went out returned with an elk or a buck as a prize, with large 

 antlers. According to the hunters, the elk obtains an additional 

 prong every year ; and one of those killed had sixteen. The antlers 

 are shed every year, and only acquire hardness at the rutting season, 

 when the velvet is rubbed off. The usual length of their life is from 

 eight to ten years. 



On the 3d, they continued the survey, until they were below 

 Feather river, when the provisions were so nearly exhausted that 

 Lieutenant-Commandant Ringgold found that it would be impossible 

 for him to examine that stream. The residents and trappers informed 

 me that they had followed it to its source. From them I learned that 

 it takes its rise in the Californian Range, from which it pursues a 

 southwest course, until it falls into the Sacramento river. It is about 

 forty miles in length. It is believed that the Spaniards, when they 

 first explored this country, designated the Feather river as the 

 Sacramento, and gave to the true Sacramento the name of the Jesu 

 Maria. In no other way, at least, can the error which has occurred, 

 in relation to the existence of the Jesu Maria, be explained ; and on 

 this supposition, the accounts of it become intelligible. 



In the neighbourhood of the Sacramento, there are sometimes to 

 be found small lakes or bayous, which seem to be filled at high water, 

 but become stagnant during the dry season. These the elk and deer 

 frequent in large numbers. Their cry or whistle is at times very 

 shrill, and may be heard for a great distance. 



At the junction of the Feather river with the Sacramento, the latter 

 increases in width to nearly double. It was found just below the 

 junction to be from twelve to fifteen hundred feet broad, forming a 

 sort of bay, but it soon again contracts. They encamped about ten 

 miles below the confluence of these streams. 



Whilst the men were employed in pitching the tents, Dr. Pickering 



