86 PROCEEDINGS OP THE CALIFORNIA 



dairymen, because the milk of cows feeding on it gave more cream 

 than when fed on other plants. 



Mr. Bloomer reported that the " Wild Parsnip " presented Oc- 

 tober 4th was the Cicuta maculata Linn., usually called "Water 

 Hemlock," and well known in the East as a deadly poison. 



Regular Meeting, November 15th, 1869. 

 * President in the Chair. 



Donations to the Cabinet : Cinnabar, quartz and porphyry, from 

 a point thirty miles north of Clear Lake, presented by Dr. Green 

 through Mr. Yale. 



Dr. Behr stated that a collection of butterflies, received by him 

 from Colorado Territory, contained several species of a very Arctic 

 type, and others of genera common to Germany, but rare in those 

 parts of the United States heretofore explored.' 



Col. Ransom read the followmg paper : 



Shell Mounds. 



BY LEANDER RANSOM. 



The subject of " Ancient Mounds " and their builders has attracted the 

 attention of antiquarians, and men of science generally, for years. Much has 

 been written on the subject, and much may be written, yet conjecture forms the 

 basis of our knowledge regarding them. 



California does not appear to have been visited by the " mound builders," 

 whose works are numerous in the Mississippi Valley, as no trace of their work 

 has yet been discovered on our coast. The only " ancienl works," in the form 

 of mounds yet discovered, are what we familiarly term " Shell Mounds," in 

 consequence of their composition being largely of shells. 



My attention was attracted at an early day to their existence on this coast, 

 and from some memoranda made by me in 1854, I have drawn up this sketch, 

 showing the position, appearances, and dimensions at that time, of a group of 

 such mounds situated about one-fourth of a mile inland from the Bay of San 

 Pablo, on the west side, a short distance below Sau Pedro Point, in Township 

 2 North, Range 6 West, Mount Diablo meridian. There are four of them. 

 The largest is eighty feet in diameter on the top, forming a perfect circle, and 

 twenty feet in height, with eides sloping about one and half degrees to one de- 

 gree. Capt. Simptou, the proprietor of the land on which they were situated, 



