Ethnology of the Pacific Coast 

 have been cleared of debris and most painstakingly 

 repaired by the National Government for the sake 

 of tourists and visitors. Dr. Dorsey's remarkable 

 little book, Indians of the Southwest, gives complete 

 instructions for reaching everv place of interest, 

 Indian tribes, pueblos, and ancient ruins. (See fig. 

 18.) 



The Indians of California, while on the whole 

 in a much ruder state than the Southwestern 

 peoples, nevertheless have some very interesting in- 

 stitutions. The art of pottery, for example, somehow 

 or other passed over the waterless Mohave desert 

 west of the pueblo Indians, and is common in that 

 part of California south of Tehachapi Pass. This 

 art, though it is very ancient in the Southwest, 

 seems to have been derived ultimatelj^ from Old 

 Mexico. It is rather curious that certain elements 

 of the highest Pueblo culture, such as potterj^, 

 should have spread to California before they af- 

 fected the remoter tribes in the Southwest. We find 

 in southern California other things which have 

 been borrowed from the pueblo region. Among 

 them might be mentioned sand paintings and the 

 custom of using an infusion of the common jimson 

 weed as a religious intoxicant. In other words, the 

 Indians of southern California have been consider- 

 ably influenced, in spite of the distance and inter- 

 vening barriers, by the more highly civilized peoples 

 of the Southwest. 



The most interesting ancient remains in Cali- 

 fornia are the numerous shell-heaps, or kitchen 

 middens, which mark the sites of old Indian vil- 

 lages, and which consist for the most part of the ac- 

 cumulated ashes from ancient fires and the remains 

 of the shell-fish on which the people very largely 

 subsisted. Some of them are very large, and repre- 

 sent a history of thousands of years. A few in the 

 vicinity of San Francisco extend for fifteen feet 

 below the level of the bay, showing that the Coast 

 has subsided to that extent since the sites were first 

 inhabited. The shell-heaps from top to bottom 

 off'er few if any evidences of change or progress. 

 In many cases objects have been recovered from the 

 lower levels of the mounds which are identical with 

 those used by living Indians. Careful study of the 

 materials of these kitchen middens gives us a good 

 deal of information not only about the mode of life 

 of the people, but about changes in the fauna and 

 flora of the region since early times. Some of these 

 mounds are situated amid rather attractive sur- 

 roundings within an hour's ride of San Francisco. 

 Mixed in with the ashes and shells of which these 



192 



