n what-
ever misfortune might overtake my enterprise. Dear old Mountain Joe ! he had as warm a heart in him as ever beat in man, and was a kind, true friend. He wandered away up to the mines of Idaho, and there giving way to his old weakness for drink, became a common hanger-on about the saloons, and at last sunk down into a tippler s grave, after having faced death in every form in which it confronts the man of the border.
He had had his love affairs and adventures with the brown children of the Sierras, and the story was current that when he went away a little waif of humanity was left fatherless in the forest.
There were most stringent regulations and laws against selling the Indians of the border any ammuni tion for any purpose whatever. After the Pit River war these were enforced with a twofold vigilance.
This was particularly oppressive to the Indians. It was, in fact, saying to them, u Look here, you savages ! We have superior means for taking your game. We will enter your forests when we choose. We will camp there in summer by the cool waters, and kill game at our pleasure with our superior arms, but you must only use the bow, and keep your distance from our camps. We will thin out and frighten away your game, so that it will be never so difficult for you to subsist ; but you must not attempt to compete with us in the chase, even in your own forests, and in sight of your own
