ETHNOLOGY 



[It is considered important to collect all possible iuformation as to tbe 

 location and character of ancient earth-works, which exist in various 

 parts of the United States, with a view to classify them and determine 

 their distribution in relation to special topographical features of the 

 country as well as to different regions. For this purpose the correspond- 

 ents of the Institution are respectfully requested to furnish information 

 as to any ancient remains of this character existing in their neighbor- 

 hoods. — J. H.] 



ANCIENT GRAVES AXD SHELL HEAPS OF CALIFORNIA. 



By Paul ScnuMAcriEU. 



During my visit to that part of the California coast between Point 

 San Luis and Point Sal, (Map A,) in the months of April, May, and 

 June, of 1874, 1 often had occasion to observe extensive shell-heaps, like 

 those I had found about a year previously so numerous along the shores 

 of Oregon. These deposits of shells and bones are the kitchen refuse of 

 the earlier inhabitants of the coast regions, where they are now found, 

 and, though differing from each other in their respective species of shells 

 and bones of vertebrates, according to the localities and the ages to 

 which they belong, they have still, together with the stone implements 

 found in them, a remarkable similarity in all parts of the North Ameri- 

 can Pacific coast that I have explored — a similarity that extends further 

 to the shell heaps or ^^ KjokJcen-moddings'^ of distant Denmark, as investi- 

 gated and described by European scientists. 



In Oregon, from Chetko to Eogue Kiver,* I found that these deposits 

 contained the following species of shells : Mytilns Californianus, Tajyes 

 staminea, Cardmm NuttaUU, Purpura lacUica, See.] eight-tenths of the 

 whole being of the species first mentioned. 



In California, on the extensive downs between the Arroyo Grande and 

 the Rio de la Santa Maria, the mouth of which latter is a few miles north 

 of Point Sal, I found that the shells, on what appear to have been tem- 

 porary camping-places, consist nearly altogether of small specimens of 

 the family Lucina; so much so that not only can scarcely any other sort 



* Of the collections made by the writer at that place, the complete and illustrated 

 description will be found in the Smithsonian Report for the year 1873, p. 354. 



