ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 83 



The plant was referred to Mr. Bloomer for scientific determin- 

 ation. 



Prof. Davidson gave an account of his recent observation of the 

 eclipse of the sun, made in Alaska. He stated that the mrost im- 

 portant point he had determined was that the appearances called 

 " Bailey's Beads " was not to be seen at the place of observation. 



Regular Meeting, October 18th, 1869. 

 President in the Chair. 



B. Christensen was elected resident member. 



Donations to the Cabinet : The jaws of a " Thrasher " Shark 

 (^Alopias vulpes?^ recently caught in this bay, by G. Yale. Bro- 

 ken implements and skulls from an Indian mound near San Rafael, 

 by Mr. F. Davis. Leaves of a mulberry tree from Japan, appar- 

 ently Morns alba, by Dr. Gibbons. 



Mr. Carlton exhibited fine specimens of miocene fossils obtained 

 by him in the ridge running through Pacheco, Contra Costa Co., 

 and already in the Academy's museum. 



Mr. Davis stated that the mound opened by him, out of a dozen 

 or more in that vicinity, was about 300 feet long, 175 wide, and 20 

 high. Skeletons at various depths showed a great antiquity, being 

 often in snccessive strata of ashes, soil, etc., slowly accumulated. 

 Flints, more or less worked, circles of hearthstones, ornaments of 

 the Abelone shell, (^Haliotis) and bones, were the only relics dis- 

 covered. 



Dr. Cooper stated that while the relics so far found in California 

 indicated that the natives had never advanced beyond the " Stone 

 Age," and that they were of the same race as the " Diggers " of 

 the Great Basin east of the Sierra Nevada, yet the tribes north of 

 California, as well as in Mexico, were far superior to them in knowl- 

 edge of the constructive arts, though the former used no metal im- 

 plements. There was evidence that the Japanese had visited the 

 northwest coast, and apparently introduced some arts, while it had 

 been recency published as a fact that a Chinese junk had visited 



