No one
walks far but the hunter, and he is carried in canoe a long way up the
river before he strikes into the forest after the animals he is in
pursuit of. This last class of men are the most wild, daring, yet
friendly and honest, of the lower class of the white population of
California. Well: as the robber as well as the honest man are equally
mounted, sometimes a very interesting steeple chase ensues,--ground
rough, not being previously chosen, occasionally leaping over pools of
water, large stones, and fallen trees. The Indians who use the lasso,
generally keep the lead, to strive to throw the noose over either the
man or horse they are pursuing. It is made of thongs of bullock-hide
twisted into a small rope about thirty or forty feet long, with a noose
formed by a running knot at the end of it. One end of the lasso is
fastened to the back of the saddle: the entire length of it is kept in a
coil on the right hand, and after two or three swings of it over their
heads, they will throw it with such accuracy that the smallest object
will come within the noose. Thus, then, if an equestrian traveler does
not keep a good look-out as he is passing by a bush or thicket, one of
these lassoes may be thrown out; the noose, falling over his head, will
be jerked tight round his body, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he will
be dragged off his horse, and away into the bush, to be stripped of
everything he has. By all the accounts I have heard, and from what I
have seen, the robbers of California are the most active in the world:
the end of the dangerous lasso being firmly fastened to the saddle,
enables the rider, as soon as his victim, either man or animal, is
noosed, to wheel round his horse, and dash off like an Arab, dragging
whatever he has fast after him. There is one method of averting the
fall of the lasso noose over the body of a man, either on foot or
horseback. If he holds, as he always ought, either sword or gun in his
right hand, when he sees the lasso coming, let him instantly raise
either and his arm in a horizontal position, and if the noose does fall
true, it cannot run farther down, being stopped by sword, gun, or
extended arm; then fling it off quick, or it may be jerked tight round
the neck. I have known this subterfuge save many a man from robbers and
perhaps murderers.

I once hunted for three months in company with a hunter well known in
California. In idea, he was wild and imaginative in the extreme; but,