Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/293

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DRIED FISH.
223

CHAPTER XVI.


MORE FISH THAN I HAD EVER SEEN AT ONE TIME. WE SURPRISE SOME INDIANS, WHO ALSO SURPRISE us. THE CAMP AT KLAMATH LAKE. I GET ANOTHER WOUND AND A LOT OF HORSES.

When we pulled out for Klamath Lake we traveled from five to ten miles a day and kept scouts out in all directions. While riding along one day with my four assistants, a few miles in advance of the command, we came to a beautiful body of water which is now known as Clear Lake, which is the head of Lost river. Here we dismounted, and on looking into a brush shanty that stood on the lake shore, I saw more fish than I had ever seen before at one time. The little shanty was filled to its utmost capacity with fish, hanging there to dry for winter use. Further on we found numerous other similar shanties, all containing like quantities of drying fish. These were the Indians' dry-houses. They had caught the fish and hung them there to dry in the hot summer's sun. Such was their food in winter when the land game was scarce.

After our fill of admiring the beautiful lake and resting our horses, we mounted and started back to the command. We had gone only a short distance, when, all of a sudden, on reaching the top of a little hill, we were