salmon, we slept until morning.

_October 26_.--Mr. Schwartz provided us with a breakfast of fried
salmon and some fresh milk. Coffee, sugar, and bread we brought with
us, so that we enjoyed a luxurious repast.

Near the house was a shed containing some forty or fifty barrels of
pickled salmon, but the fish, from their having been badly put up, were
spoiled. Mr. Schwartz attempted to explain the particular causes of
this, but I could not understand him. The salmon are taken with seines
dragged across the channel of the river by Indians in canoes. On the
bank of the river the Indians were eating their breakfast, which
consisted of a large fresh salmon, roasted in the ashes or embers, and
a kettle of _atole_, made of acorn-meal. The salmon was four or five
feet in length, and, when taken out of the fire and cut open, presented
a most tempting appearance. The Indians were all nearly naked, and most
of them, having been wading in the water at daylight to set their
seines, were shivering with the cold whilst greedily devouring their
morning meal.

We reached the _embarcadero_ of New Helvetia about eleven o'clock,
A.M., and, finding there a wagon, we placed our baggage in it, and
walked to the fort, about two and a half miles.




CHAPTER VII.

Disastrous news from the south