indicated in the inclosed sketch. * To complete the general idea intended to be given by it, it is necessary. to conceive of the western spurs of the Coast Range as sloping gradually down for some twenty miles till they meet a serried column ofmountain ridges running diagonally across the country. The general direction of these ridges (omitted int the plan for the sake of distinctness) is shown by the streams that drain the narrow valleys between them to be northwest and southeast, except in Mendocino County, where they run nearly north and south. These ridges cover the central portion of the district, an average width of, pehraps, twenty-five miles. The belt of land between these ridges and the coast, of an average width of about twenty miles, is mostly covered with a dense forest of redwood or fir. In the fine season the Indians are mostly romaing over the whole country from the Coast Range to the sea, at least to the belt of forest skirting the coast; but in the winter season, from the time the snow begins to be deep on the mountains, they shelter themselves in the narrow valleys between the ridges, a long the banks of the streams, where their rancherias will be found stationary until the snows hae melted away, when they scattere again till the following winter. In the winter season, therefore, to find them it is only necessary to follow up the streams from their mouths to their sources, as so many lines of operations. From all this it is obvious that if the routes should become practicable for troops and their baggage and remain so fro a few weeks, the snows still resting on the mountains, the proper plan of campaign would be to send up a force of a few hundred men from the Lower Russian River as a base, through the valley of that river to its sources, thence down the various tributaries of Eel River to their respective mounths, dividing for that purpose into as many detachments as may be necessary; this force to be met by another one, which, starting from Klamath River as a base (I have heard no complaints of the Indians in Del Monte), should push detachment sup the Klamath, Trinity, Redwood, and Mad Rivers and their various tributaries, as also Eel River and its northern branches. This latter force should be more numerous than the former, having to furnish more detatchments. A company or two of cavalry with each of these corps would be very serviceable to head off straggling parties, pursue fugitives, for the more prompt securing of passes, and other duties which properly belong to mounted men. In addition to these two corps, two or three companies on the estern side of the Coast Range would probably furnish de to guard the few parcticable passes that may exist through those mountains while they are covered with snow. The general character of the Indians to the south of the Klamath, so the old residents tell m, e is treacherous and vindictive, but not warlike. Fighting only in ambush, they are perhaps more dnagerous than the bold mounted warriors of Oregon. Comparatively few of them as yet are provided with fire-arms, but they are constantly receiving both arms and ammunition through the squaw men and other low vagabond whites. The Klamath Indians, however, whose chief habitat is on both banks of the Klamath River, are said to be far superior in intelligence and in bravery to the tribes south of them. They are decidedly warlike and ight in the open field man to man. Thier headquarters would seem to be in Hoopa Valley, which is a few miles only in extent and close to Fort Gaston. The number of warriors this valley can turn out is variously estimated from 300 to 500. Their principal man-we-ma, or chief, is an intelligence man, and having been taken down to San Francisco some years since to learn the power and number of the whites, is said to be disposed to keep

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*Not found.

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