st. I was the only passenger. For
thirty miles the road passed through as beautiful a country as I had
ever seen. Dotted here and there with the California oak, it reminded
me of the peaceful apple-orchards and smiling river-meadows of dear old
New England. As a frame to the graceful picture, on one side rose the
Buttes, that group of hills so piquant and saucy, and on the other,
tossing to heaven the everlasting whiteness of their snow-wreathed
foreheads, stood, sublime in their very monotony, the summits of the
glorious Sierra Nevada.

We passed one place where a number of Indian women were gathering
flower-seeds, which, mixed with pounded acorns and grasshoppers, form
the bread of these miserable people. The idea, and the really ingenious
mode of carrying it out, struck me as so singular, that I cannot
forbear attempting a description. These poor creatures were entirely
naked, with the exception of a quantity of grass bound round the waist,
and covering the thighs midway to the knees, perhaps. Each one carried
two brown baskets, which, I have since been told, are made of a species
of osier, woven with a neatness which is absolutely marvelous, when one
considers that they are the handiwork of such degraded wretches. Shaped
like a cone, they are about six feet in circumference at the opening,
and I should judge them to be nearly three feet in depth. It is
evident, by the grace and care with which they handle them, that they
are exceedingly light. It is possible that my description may be
inaccurate, for I have never read any account of them, and merely give
my own impressions as they were received while the wagon rolled rapidly
by the spot at which the women were at work. One of these queer baskets
is suspended from the back, and is kept in place by a thong of leather
passing across the forehead. The other they carry in the right hand and
wave over the flower-seeds, first to the right, and back again to the
left, alternately, as they walk slowly along, with a motion as regular
and monotonous as that of a mower. When they have collected a handful
of the seeds, they pour them into the basket behind, and continue this
work until they have filled the latter with their strange harvest. The
seeds thus gathered are carried to their rancherias, and stowed away
with great care for winter use. It was, to me, very interesting to
watch their regular motion, they seemed so exactly to keep time with
one another; and with their dark