order to assess the population in greater detail as well as to introduce new sources of information it will be advantageous to break up the entire region into smaller units and consider these units one by one.

STANISLAUS AND TUOLUMNE RIVERS

We may begin with the watersheds of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers, since for this area reasonably complete information is available (see maps 1, 5, and 6, areas 7 and 9.) On May 31, 1851, the Daily Alta California reported the treaty made with tribes of this region and stated that they were 1,000 strong. This treaty (treaty E in the California Treaties) covered the courses of the two streams as far as their junction with the San Joaquin, on the one hand, and an indeterminate distance into the hills, on the other. Ryer vaccinated in the area during June of the same year and submitted a bill for 1,010 operations. He specifies 6 bands, rancherias, or tribes which were predominantly Siakumne and Taulamni, a fact which implies that he confined his attention principally to the inhabitants of the valley and the lower foothills. In the preceding discussion it was pointed out that Ryer's figures are probably too low and that a correction should be introduced. If the same ratio is used as before, the value becomes 1,420.

Adam Johnston, in a statement published in 1853 includes a map (Johnston, 1853, p. 242). Along the rivers shown on this map he has placed figures for population. According to him there were 900 Indians on the Stanislaus and 450 on the Tuolumne, or a total of 1,350. These are distinctly noted as reservation Indians and hence would not have included the entire population. Four years later, H. W. Wessels reported for the same area only 500-700 persons (Wessels, 1857). These were the Indians left on the reservations.

At about the same period, James D. Savage gave as his opinion that there were 2,500 people on the Stanislaus and 2,100 on the Tuolumne (Dixon, MS, 1875). In their report in 1853 Barbour, McKee, and Wozencraft refer to a statement by a chief named Kossus that under his jurisdiction were 4,000 persons and 30 rancherias from the Calaveras to the Stanislaus. Although these two estimates are widely at variance with those submitted by the officials, it must be remembered that both Savage and Chief Kossus may have been referring to a somewhat earlier date and that both included bands and settlements higher up the rivers than was actually reached by the commissioners. Hence, although the figure of over 4,000 is likely too high, 1,000 to 1,500 may have been too low.

With respect to the strictly lowland tribes there is but little doubt that by the year 1852 the northern Yokuts lying between Stockton and Modesto had practically disappeared. Thus the first state census, taken in 1852, showed only 275 Indians remaining on the lower Stanislaus. George H. Tinkham states that in the same year there were only 10 families (perhaps 50 persons) left from the tribe which formerly had inhabited the region between the Calaveras and the Stanislaus and had extended eastward along the latter stream as far as Knights Ferry (Tinkham, 1923). The valley plains can consequently account for no more than approximately 350 persons and it must be assumed that almost all the remaining natives were living along the border of the foothills and higher up in the mountains.

One item of some significance is the discussion of the Tuolumne River tribes by Adam Johnston, written in the year 1860, definitely after the Gold Rush period. He says there were six chiefs in command of six rancherias, the names of which he gives. These rancherias "contain from fifty to two hundred Indians, men, women and children." One of these bands, the Aplache, "resided further in the mountains," from which one may infer that the other five were also in the mountains. At an average of 125 per band, or rancheria, this means 900 people whose existence was known to Johnston as late as 1860. An equivalent number can be assumed for the Stanislaus, or 1,800 in all.

The ethnographers have given us an imposing list of villages for the area under consideration, derived entirely from modern informants. There are three of these lists, those of Kroeber (1925), Merriam[2], and Gifford,[3] which merit careful scrutiny. Kroeber's (p. 445 of the Handbook) includes 49 names, which he says are of villages "that can be both named and approximately located." Merriam's "Mewuk List" has 28 names of places located on the Stanislaus and Tuolumne. Gifford shows 49 villages which he says are "permanent," in addition to perhaps twice that number of "temporary" villages and camps. Gifford's list is probably the most carefully compiled of the three. The geographical location is indicated by counties but since his field of observation embraces Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, it coincides territorially quite exactly with the other two lists.

Certain villages are recorded by all three investigators, others by two of them, and some by only one. Concerning the existence of the first two groups there can be little, if any, doubt. Of those appearing on only one list some question might be raised. On the other hand, the care and conservatism exhibited by all three ethnographers makes it very difficult to doubt the essential validity of their data. The discrepancies are clearly due to the differences between informants and the high probability that no single informant could recall all the inhabited places over so large an area.

I have tabulated below the number of villages according to river system and according to occurrence in the lists mentioned.

We have therefore 70 reasonably well authenticated villages in the hill area traversed by the two rivers. With regard to the number of inhabitants, further data are provided by Gifford. His informant gave for each permanent place an estimate of the number of persons present in the year 1840. Gifford secured his material in approximately the year 1915 from a man very old at the time. If the informant was then seventy-five years of age, he must have been born in