ay, as we were descending by the trail from the bluff to the beach,
we saw a funeral procession slowly ascending the wagon-road. It came
from the Sailors' Hospital. We waited until it passed. The cart
containing the coffin was drawn by oxen, and followed by a little white
dog and a few decrepit sailors. There was no sign of mourning, but a
reverent look in their faces. The body had been wrapped in a flag by
brotherly hands. The deep music of the surf followed them, and the dark
fir-branches met overhead.

In California, the poorest of people, by the competition of undertakers,
are furnished, at low rates, with the use of silver-mounted hearses and
nodding plumes, a shrouding of crape, and a long line of carriages. Even
those who have really loved the one who is gone seem, in some
incomprehensible way, to find a solace in these manifestations, and
would have considered this sailor's solitary funeral the extreme of
desolation. But Nature took him gently to her bosom; the soft sky and
the fragrant earth seemed to be calling him home.

We found by inquiry that it was the funeral of an entirely unknown
sailor, who had not even any distant friends to whom he wished messages
sent. His few possessions he left for the use of the children of the
place, and quietly closed his eyes among strangers, returning peacefully
to the unknown country whence he came.

AUGUST 2, 1865.

We went this morning to an Indian _Tamahnous_ (incantation), to drive
away the evil spirits from a sick man. He lay on a mat, surrounded by
women, who beat on instruments made by stretching deer-skin over a
frame, and accompanied the noise thus produced by a monotonous wail.
Once in a while it became quite stirring, and the sick man seemed to be
improved by it. Then an old man crept in stealthily, on all-fours, and,
stealing up to him, put his mouth to the flesh, here and there,
apparently sucking out the disease.

AUGUST 17, 1865.

Hunter stopped to rest to-day on our door-steps. He had a haunch of
elk-meat on his back, one end resting on his head, with a cushion of
green fern-leaves. He called me "_Closhe tum-tum_" (Good Heart), and
gave me a great many beautiful smiles.

We find that there are a number of canoes suspended in the large
fir-trees on some of our land, with the mummies of Indians in them.
These are probably the bodies of chiefs, or persons of high rank. There
is also a graveyard on the beach, which is gay with bright blankets,
r