160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



1864. Public Documents from Senator Conness. Geographie 

 Botanique Raisonee, by Alph. DeCandolle, from the author. 



Dr. Cooper stated that he had lately learned from Mr. Gill, of 

 the Smithsonian Museum, that the genus Ayresia, lately de- 

 scribed in these Proceedings, is identical with Chromis, of Cuvier, 

 though not Chromis of Richardson, Avith which Dr. C. had com- 

 pared it. The name of the fish must therefore be changed to 

 Chromis Punctipinnis, Cooper. 



Col. Ransom presented, on behalf of Mr. John Wilson of this 

 city, some Indian relics, from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, ac- 

 companied by a letter of which the following is an abstract : 



The relics consist of part of a foot and hair from different mummies, a string 

 of beads made of bone, with a few of blue stone, also part of a belt and tassel, 

 and a piece of very strong cloth of vegetable material. These were found by 

 Mr. Wilson in a cave situated on the western slope of a very high mountain of 

 the Sierra Madre, which seems almost to hang over the ancient Pueblo of Chi- 

 ricahui — a name signifying the Mountain of Bones. This Pueblo was occu- 

 pied by the Spaniards soon after the conquest by Cortez ; and from previous 

 traditions it is supposed by the inhabitants that this cave, and another on the 

 opposite side of the valley, had been used as a place of burial by the natives 

 for several hundred years. It is supposed that no bodies have been deposited 

 there for the past hundred and fifty years, and perhaps longer. 



On visiting the cave, Mr. Wilson found an excavation in the floor made three 

 or four years since by some persons digging for saltpetre-earth, partly filled in, 

 but still several feet deep ; and exposed at the sides of this pit were several rows 

 of bodies placed in regular order one above another, in a remarkable state of pres- 

 ervation. They were in a compact position, the knees bent up to the chin, and 

 the face drawn back close to the buttocks, then securely sewed up in the re- 

 markably strong and well-woven cloth here presented, which, on all of the four 

 or five bodies examined, showed the same degree of strength and perfection. 

 Over this was another covering of palm-leaves also sewn closely together. The 

 bodies were dried and shrunken, but retained their form and integuments. 

 Under each body were two small sticks, on which the body was laid on its 

 back, the feet towards the mouth of the cave. 



The circumference of the cave was about a hundred feet, and the height above 

 the floor, thirty or forty feet. 



Mr. Wilson and his companions " came to the very decided conclusion," that 

 the floor of the cave, for a depth of twenty feet or more, was formed of bodies 

 similarly arranged in layers which had been placed there from time to time, as 

 they died, and covered with earth and pebbles from the sides of the mountains. 

 There can be no doubt that a thorough exploration of these relics would reveal 

 very much of the lost history of the Indian tribes of Mexico, and richly reward 

 the labors of the antiquarian. The excellent material of the cloth in which 



