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the Indians, but it was of but little use to them. Their bows and arrows did poor competition with the rifles of the whites in the killing of the game. The whites fairly filled the cabins with deer and elk, got all the lion s share, and left the Indians almost destitute.
Another thing that made it rather more hard on the Indians than anything else, was the utter failure of the annual run of salmon the summer before, on account of the muddy water. The Klamat, which had poured from the mountain lakes to the sea as clear as glass, was now made muddy and turbid from the miners washing for gold on its banks and its tributaries. The trout turned on their sides and died ; the salmon from the sea came in but rarely on account of this ; and what few did come were pretty safe from the spears of the Indians, because of the coloured water ; so that supply, which was more than all others their bread and their meat, was entirely cut off.
Mine? It was all a mystery to these Indians as long as they were permitted to live. Besides, there were some whites mining who made poor headway against hunger. I have seen them gather in groups on the bank above the mines and watch in silence for hours as if endeavouring to make it out ; at last they would shrug their shoulders, draw their skins closer about them, and stalk away no wiser than before.
Why we should tear up the earth, toil like gnomes from sun-up to sun-down, rain or sun, destroy the forests and pollute the rivers, was to them more than
