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Show 42 PERSONAL ADVENTURES tirely bought up, and could not be purchased, • save at an enormous pnce. The squaws were finely-proportioned women, but their features were somewhat coarse ; a characteristic of the race. Their heads were fantastically adorned with feathers and a few pieces of yellow cloth, whilst their persons were very scantily attired. Most of them were armed with a bow and arrows, the former being made of the toughest and most elastic wood, lined on the inner side with the strong sinews of some wild animal, which adhere to the surface of the wood by the application of a glutinous matter resembling gun1. Their arrows are straight, and highly finished, being armed at the point with sharp triangular pieces of flint, barbed by careful chipping, and neatly bound on. These arrows are ex· tremely difficult to withdraw from the flesh; and those who are wounded by them prefer having the whole missile pulled through the injured part to submitting to the painful process of a more scientific abstraction. Very few of the Indians of this country possessed IN CALIFORNIA. 43 firearms at the period of which I speak; but I doubt not the American speculators will soon introduce them as a profitable article of trade, notwithstanding the injurious consequences that are certain to result from them, not only to the natives themselves, but to the settlers of the surrounding country. To return, however, to what more immediately relates to myself, I rnay state, that finding trading more remunerative than golddigging, I began to take advantage of any opportunities that presented themselves, to dispose of such articles as I could spare, to whoever felt inclined to give me a price for them. A pair of pistols, which I had purchased at Monterey for eleven dollars and a half, I now sold to Corrigan for seven ounces of gold, and subsequently ascertained that he refused twelve for them higher up the ravine. My old musket fetched two ounces; an overcoat that I had 'vorn during my stay in California, and would really not have been worth a dollar anywhere but at the mines, realized twentyfour dollars ; and getting now into the true |