162 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



«() forbidding the deserts on the south, that few coniiiiunities once 

 settknl iilon.i4" the coast would ever take the trouble to seek homes else- 

 where. It would seem that the nations were caught as tish in a trap. 

 The wa}' in was eas}', but the way out was hard. By some such process 

 California acciuired its varied peoples. The remarkable diversity' in 

 lanj^uat^e is thus probably largel}' due to the arrival of tribes already 

 speakino- diversified tongues rather than to diflerentiation within 

 present hal)itats. 



Notwithstanding the great multiplicit}' of languages there is marked 

 uniformity in the physical characters of the peopie, and culture in 

 general is diversihed only in details. We conclude that although the 

 peoples had a common origin, no doubt in the far north, scattering and 

 isolated occupation of vast areas of country led to multiplication of 

 tongues, while all those elements of culture dependent upon immediate 

 enA'ironment and readily modified by it have been remodeled into a 

 homogeneous whole. It is probable that conditions nearly identical 

 with those of historic times have prevailed for a long period on tlie 

 Pacific coast. Archieology seems to have no strong light to throw 

 upon the history of the region. We seek in vain for the presence of 

 distinct peoples or indications of different conditions. We can neither 

 trace any of the present peoples back along the course of their history 

 to more primitive conditions, nor follow the ii in their migrations far 

 outward into regions from which the}' may have come. There is 

 nothing in the past of culture that is not comprised in the present. 

 There may have been simpler peoples, less advanced peoples, in the 

 near or far past, but there is no trace of former higher development 

 or the coming of strangers bearing with them germs of strange cul- 

 tures from foreign lands, northern or southern, Asiatic, European, or 

 Polynesian. 



We observe, also, that in its ensemble Californian culture is sharply 

 marked off even from that of most of the neighboring peoples — ^as, for 

 example, the Pueblos, the Mound-Builders, and the Mexicans. Art in 

 stone, upon which archaeology must largeh' depend, is practically 

 uniform at all points in the California province, differences being due 

 largel}^ to variations in local resources. The absence of certain forms 

 of implements and utensils common elsewhere is especially noteworthy-. 

 There are no grooved axes* and no celts, past or present. Sculpture 

 of life forms is almost wholly absent, and building in stone was and is 

 unknown. At the same time many of the classes of artifacts found in 

 California are peculiar to the region. The mortar and the pestle are 

 most notable features of the domestic outfit of the coast, and though, 

 in one form or another, present in many sections of America, are 

 nowhere so prevalent and so varied in shape. The grinding plate and 



^ An exception is found in the grooved implement, illustrated in the seventh vol- 

 ume of the Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, p. 203. 



