ide of the bay, lies the Russian
River Valley, as beautiful naturally as that of the Santa Clara, and
of which Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale are the chief
towns. It is a considerable plain, bounded by fine hills and distant
mountains, which open up, as you pass by on the railroad, numerous
pretty reaches of subsidiary vales, where farmers live protected by the
projecting hills from all harsh sea-breezes, and where frost is seldom if
ever felt.

As you ascend the valley, the madrone, one of the most striking trees
of California, becomes abundant and of larger growth, and its dark-green
foliage and bright cinnamon-colored bark ornament the landscape. The
laurel, too, or California bay-tree, grows thriftily among the hills, and
the plain and foot-hills are dotted with oak and redwood. This valley is
as yet somewhat thinly peopled, but it has the promise of a growth which
will make it the equal some day of the Santa Clara, and the superior,
perhaps, of the Napa Valley.

[Illustration: INDIANS SPEARING SALMON, COLUMBIA RIVER.]

CHAPTER VII.

AN INDIAN RESERVATION.

A part of Round Valley, in Mendocino County, is set apart and used for an
Indian reservation; and, under the present policy of the Government, an
attempt has been made to gather and keep all the Indians of the northern
coast of California upon this reserve. In point of fact they are not
nearly all there. One thousand and eighty-one men, women, and children,
according to a census recently taken, or nearly one thousand two hundred
according to the Rev. Mr. Burchard, the Indian agent, are actually within
the reservation lines; and about four hundred are absent, at work for
themselves or for white men, but have the right to come in at any time to
be clothed and fed.

Round Valley is a plain surrounded by high mountains. The plain is mostly
excellent agricultural land; the mountain slopes are valuable for grazing.
The reservation contains, it is said, sixty thousand acres; but only a
small part of this is plain, and the reservation occupies about one-third
or perhaps only a quarter of the whole valley. The remainder is held by
white farmers; and there is a rude little town, Covelo, in the centre of
the valley, about a mile and a half from the reservation house.

The reservation has a mill, store-houses, the houses of the agent and his
subordinates, two school-houses, and the huts of the Indians; the latter
are either rough board one-r