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 1840. Hence he could scarcely be expected to remember population figures from a date much earlier than his childhood. The names and location of the villages themselves were at least semipermanent and could have been derived from the informant's parents even if not from his own memory. Hence it is probable that the figure furnished to Gifford more nearly represents the number of inhabitants in 1850 than in 1840. The average value for all 49 villages is 20.8 persons. Yet 7 villages are stated to have held 15 persons, 11 villages 10 persons, and 3 villages 5 or less persons. Such a condition argues a rapidly declining population, for no normal aboriginal settlement is likely to have contained less than 20 inhabitants. Gifford's average of 21 persons per village must, however, be accepted as representing the closest we can get to the value for the period of 1850. This means a population of 588 for the Stanislaus and 882 for the Tuolumne. The total is 1,470 for the foothill region. Between 300 and 400 may be added to account for scattered remnants along the lower courses of these rivers and on the San Joaquin itself, or 1,800 for the entire area under consideration. To summarize, we have the following estimates for the Stanislaus-Tuolumne watershed at or about the year 1851: Savage (perhaps before 1851) 4,600 Chief Kossus 4,000 Daily Alta California, 1851 1,000 Vaccinations by Ryer 1,420 Adam Johnston's estimate, 1853 1,350 Adam Johnston's estimate, 1860 1,800 H. W. Wessels, 1853 600 Village lists 1,800 The crude numerical average is about 2,070 but since the best of the above estimates, the village lists, shows no more than 1,800, it will be preferable to set 2,000 as a fair approximation. STANISLAUS-TUOLUMNE ... 2,000 _____________________________ MERCED RIVER, MARIPOSA CREEK, AND CHOWCHILLA RIVER