104 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



climate being warm and the river narrow, they did not need artificial 

 navigation. 



On the 25th of August, the boats left Captain Sutter's residence; but 

 owing to various delays, did not reach the junction of Feather River 

 until noon of the following day. At this spot, there had been a burial- 

 place, consisting of several circular pits, three or four feet in diameter 

 by as many in depth ; and skulls were picked up by some of our 

 party. A similar burial-place was subsequently examined, a few 

 miles above, situated in like manner, at the mouth of a tributary 

 stream, where the bank was a little higher than usual : but the pits 

 were here filled nearly to the surface, and skulls were lying around, 

 together with a few articles of European manufacture. 



Above tide-water to the end of our excursion, the valley of the Sa- 

 cramento presented a uniform appearance; that of a level plain, many 

 miles across, and devoid of brush or timber, except a strip of scattered 

 oaks along the river. Immediately beyond the trees, the surface was 

 usually a few feet lower, and there were extensive tracts covered with 

 rushes, — Scirpus lacustris.* It was an unexpected circumstance, to 

 find an aquatic plant thus growing in the dry plain; but the stems 

 at this season conformed to the general tint of the herbatre, beino^ 

 withered and brown ; the revival taking place with the extensive 

 winter inundation. 



The presence of a large proportion of saline matter in the soil, was 

 considered at the time, an objection to any kind of cultivation; but 

 this has appeared less valid after visiting the alluvial flats of the 

 Nile. Above Feather River, the Sacramento became winding and 

 contracted ; but it maintained constantly its breadth of about two 

 hundred feet, and although at this season some twenty feet below 

 the top of the banks, it was deep, and the current gentle. 



A few miles above the junction, I landed on the eastern bank, with 

 Mr. Geiger from New York, who accompanied our party. The natives 

 had abandoned the vicinity, "in consequence of a conflict a few months 

 previously, in which they had assailed the boats of Captain Sutter :" 

 acting, as it appeared afterwards, under a misapprehension, there 

 being in the boats some natives of an inimical tribe. The scarcity of 

 game in the immediate neighbourhood, was attributed to the Cana- 

 dians of the Hudson Bay Company; "who had been in the habit of 

 coming this way in large parties, for the last ten years." 



* This plant is called ' tula' by the colonists, from the Mexican name ' tulitl.' 



