ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIKS IX CALIFORNIA. 



By William Henry Holmes, 

 Head Curator, Depurtmeiit of Anthropology. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It i.s not intended in the present paper to enter into a systematic 

 discussion of Californian a]"cha?ology and ethnology, but rather to 

 present such materials as it has been my good fortune to acquire dur- 

 ing a brief period of exploration, mainh' in the central portions of the 

 State. ^ In order that these observations may have, in a measure, the 

 proper setting, a few introductory remarks in explanation of general 

 anthropological conditions on the Pacific coast are presented. 



In considering the archaBology of a great region like California, it is 

 proper that the present aborigines and their culture should l)e studied, 

 and the knowledge thus acquired utilized in discussing the prehistoric 

 monuments and artifacts of the region. To-day there are remnants of 

 many tribes in California, at least twenty separate linguistic stocks 

 being represented, a really marvelous diversity in a province which, 

 howsoever extensive (some 300 by 800 miles in extent), is not separated 

 into very well-defined areas by orographic or other Ijarriers. As laid 

 down in colors on the map, the remarkable multiplicity of stocks along 

 the Pacific coast is especialh' noticeable, and it seems as if the varied 

 ethnic elements of a vast region must have been attracted, one after 

 another, to these lowland and coastal valleys by some powerful mag- 

 net, such, for example, as that furnished b}^ an unfailing food supply; 

 and so formidable are the barriers of mountain ranges on the east and 



'The oVjservations recorded in the^e pages were made during a brief trip to Cali- 

 fornia in the summer of 1898. The work was conducted under the auspices of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, and the writer was accompanied during the major 

 part of the journey by Dr. W J McGee, ethnologist in charge of the Bureau. One 

 of the principal objects of the journey was to look into the evidence relating to the 

 antiquity of man in tlie Auriferous Gravel region of the Sierra Nevada. This subject 

 has already received attention in a i)aper published in the American Antiiropologist 

 for January and OctoT)er, 1S99, and reprinted with additions in the Smithsonian 

 Reiwrt for 1900, and will not be prcseuteU. at length in this connection. 



161 

 NAT MUS 1900 11 



