erto, and the same as those we saw farther on.
Some wear the hair long, others short, and some have beards
rather long and heavy.

Font and Anza had an excellent opportunity to observe aboriginal methods
of navigation and fishing. At the western end of Carquinez Strait, says
Anza (A, p. 140), five tule rafts crossed the strait in less than a
quarter of an hour, the tide being slack. Font says, regarding these
craft (F2, p. 320):

We saw there some launches very well made of tule, with their
prows or points somewhat elevated. They had been anchored near
the shore with some stones for anchors, and in the middle of the
water some Indians were fishing in one.... I saw that they were
fishing with nets and that they anchored the launch with some
very long slim poles.

These poles were measured and found to be about 13 varas long (roughly
35 ft.). Font goes on to describe the actual taking of fish:

Among other fish which they caught the Indians who were fishing
pulled out two very large ones, about two varas long, and their
method of catching them was this: as soon as they felt from the
pull made by the fish that it was in the net, which was tied to
the two poles, they began gradually to raise one of the poles,
and as soon as the fish and the net came in sight, without
taking it from the water they gave the fish many blows on the
head. Once I counted fifteen blows in succession and in another
case twenty-odd. Now that it was dead and had lost its strength
they took it from the net and put it inside the launch.

A soldier traded a piece of cloth for a fish. But the Indians

... before delivering it took the spawn from the stomach and an
intestine like a pocket, and right there on the spot they ate
the spawn raw and put what was left over in the intestine. They
then went to eat the other fish, which they dispatched quickly.
Making a little fire they put it in, and in a short time, almost
before it was hot, like brutes they ate it as it was, almost
raw.

Some war equipment was seen. Near the camp on Walnut Creek at Pacheco,
the party was visited by local Indians with whom there was a little
trouble.

Some of them came to see us, carrying bows and arrows, for all
had very good ones and well made, the bow of good wood, small
and wound with tendons like those we saw on the Channel, and the
arrows of little