190 CALIFORNIA. 



It was with some difficulty that the Indians were persuaded to 

 approach ; but a fine-looking savage, more bold than the rest, at last 

 ventured to do so, and gave the information that the Indian who had 

 committed the theft, resided at the village up stream. 



The weapon therefore not being forthcoming, Lieutenant-Comman- 

 dant Ringgold determined to seize this man as a hostage for the return 

 of the article. He was accordingly secured, his arms pinioned behind 

 him, and led down to the boat, when two men were ordered to tie his 

 legs ; while they were in the act of doing this, he extricated himself, 

 and jumped overboard. The guns were at once levelled, and half a 

 dozen triggers ready to be pulled ; but Lieutenant-Commandant Ring- 

 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 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 fre- 



