110 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



were mostly in a state of nudity. They brought us a kind of black 

 bread, probably composed of pounded acorns, mixed with seeds of 

 various kinds, and sweetened apparently with the fruit of Arbutus 

 tomentosa : also cones of a species of pine (P. Coulteri), which we 

 had met with yesterday, the seeds of which these people eat. They 

 sheltered themselves behind a sort of barricade of branches and stems 

 of trees." Mr. Agate remarked the use of a blackish pigment on por- 

 tions of their bodies, as in the Californians figured by Choris ; but 

 which I did not myself meet with. Notwithstanding then, the dis- 

 tance of a hundred miles from the limit of our boat excursion, the 

 only essential variation noted in the habits of the natives, consists 

 in the use of pine-cones, which they are enabled to procure by reason 

 of the vicinity of the mountains. After leaving this spot, the party 

 kept to the eastward of the Sacramento, in general at a sufficient dis- 

 tance to avoid the bends of the river, and did not meet with natives 

 until arriving at Captain Sutter's residence. 



To go back a little in the narration : we left the same party on the 

 29th of September, at the ridge which divides Oregon from California. 

 The political boundary proved to be also a natural one : for " a change 

 took place in the general appearance of the country, which was now 

 mostly bare, the vegetation having been dried up by the heat of sum- 

 mer ; while the northern slope was well wooded as far as the eye 

 could reach." A difference also was soon apparent in the habits and 

 disposition of the natives; who belonged to the Shasty tribe. 



After crossing the ridge, the party remained during the 30th, at 

 tlieir encampment, by the side of a small stream. At this place " an 

 old feather dress was found hanging near the remains of two huts; 

 the only ones seen on the whole route ;" and which, according to Mr. 

 Agate's drawino;, were similar to those of the San Francisco tribes. 

 On the 1st of October, the party soon "reached the main river; and 

 continuing over a level plain, again struck it towards evening, and en- 

 camped on its banks. An interview was had with some natives, who 

 sold us a species of white-tieshed salmon, which abounds in this river." 

 One of these natives (whose portrait was taken by Mr. Agate), wore a 

 hemispherical caj), of the same kind of manufacture as the water-bas- 

 kets : and his quiver, in the drawing, resembles those of the Sacra- 

 mento tribes, and is carried in the same manner. " Another native 

 had a dress of leather, devoid of hair," and of the usual aboriginal 

 manufacture. 



" On the 2d, the party proceeded over a gently undulating prairie 



