NARRATIVE AND ITINERARY—KLAMATH MARSH—INDIANS. 
69 
consisting mostly of seeds of water plants and dried fish, several canoes made of hollowed logs, 
many baskets formed of reeds curiously woven together, and divers other valuables, were scat¬ 
tered around in wild confusion. The fires were burning in front of the huts, of which there 
were three distinct kinds. The summer lodges had vertical walls supporting flat roofs. They 
were composed of a framework of sticks, covered with a matting of woven tule. The winter huts 
were shaped like bee-hives, and made of sticks plastered with mud. We noticed only one of the 
third kind, which was apparently used for a council house. A hole, about four feet deep and ten 
feet square, had been excavated, and the earth heaped up around the sides. Large sticks planted 
in this mud wall supported a roof made of cross poles covered with earth. The entrance was 
by a flight of mud steps that conducted to the roof, from which a rude ladder led through a 
hole to the floor below. Each of these structures is represented in the accompanying.wood cuts, 
together with some conical graves described below. 
The dusky inmates of the rancheria had betaken themselves to their canoes, and retreated 
among the tule to what they considered a safe distance. They now stood, yelling like fiends 
and shaking their weapons at us in impotent rage. Strict orders had been given that none of 
their property should be injured; and we passed rapidly along the shore of the marsh, sur¬ 
prising a new rancheria at almost every turn. The number of these savages is very large; 
and nature has given them so secure a retreat, that only a greatly superior force provided with 
boats, could attack them to advantage. They paddled through openings among the tule, and 
thus accompanied us, uttering hideous howls when the labor of working their passage did not 
keep them quiet. We passed on the way one of their burial places. The bodies had been 
doubled up, and placed in a sitting posture in holes. The earth, when replaced, formed conical 
mounds over the heads. Near the other graves, but on a slight eminence, stood a new wall- 
tent, such as is used in our service. It was regularly pitched and the front tied up. On look- 
