Note XII-17 — Chapter XII · ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTHWEST.

'An immense number of skulls were found by Captain Moraga in the vicinity of a creek, which, from that circumstance, was called Calaveras, or the river of skulls. The story was, that the tribes from the Sierras came down to the valley to fish for Salmon. To this the Valley Indians objected, and, as the conflict was irrepressible, a bloody battle was fought, and three thousand dead bodies were left to whiten the banks with their bones. The county in which the river rises assumed its name.' Tuthill's Hist. Cal., p. 303.