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ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CALIFORNIA. 183 



sites of this island — the soapstone quarries of Potts Valley and the 

 shell deposits of the isthmus. These sites were explored by Schu- 

 macher many years ago, and the rich collections obtained b}^ him are 

 now preserved in the museums at Washington and Cambridg-e. I need 

 not do more in this place than briefly record my observations and 

 impressions regarding these sites. 



Pearly in the morning of November 2, 1898, 1 set out on horseback 

 with Mexican Joe as guide, to And the soapstone quarries some 10 

 miles to the northwest. We climbed the steep slopes from Avalon, 

 meandered the lofty sinuous crests of the island, passing across the 

 shoulder of Black Jack — a mountain rising nearly 1,800 feet above 

 the sea— and descended into Potts Valley, which, if my identification 

 be correct, opens down to the sea on the north of the ridge. At many 

 points we encountered outcrops of steatite, and evidences of ancient 

 mining were apparent on all hands. There were shallow excavations 

 and heaps of debris surrounded by fragments of partially shaped ves- 

 sels and the rude stone picks, hammers, and chisels with which the 

 ({uarrying and shaping work was done. Near the site of the pi'incipal 

 (|uarry reported upon by Schumacher there has been some recent 

 quarrying by white settlers, but fortunately the outcrop from which 

 the aborigines cut so many pots remains undisturbed. At the head of 

 the shallow amphitheater of Potts Valle}^ which descends to the shore 

 half a mile or more below, some great masses of rugged rock rise from 

 the otherwise smooth slopes. Portions of these masses are composed 

 of soapstone, and the surfaces from which lumjjs of soft rock were cut 

 are in plain view. A vigorous growth of cactus plants covers the 

 lower part of the exposure, but enough remains in sight to tell the 

 st(jry of former enterprise. The scars left by the workmen extend 

 over 100 or 500 square feet of the steep surfaces of the rocky mass, 

 and the views shown in Plate 46 disclose the scars and chisel marks to 

 excellent advantage. The work of removing the rounded masses of 

 stone from which the vessels were to be shaped was identical in char- 

 acter with that observed in the many soapstone quarries of the East- 

 ern States, but so far as the markings now remaining show, the cutting- 

 has been more skillful, and it seems not impro})al)le that the work in 

 the examples illustrated has been done with metallic tools. It is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that the trade in soapstone pots, carried on exten- 

 sively between the islanders and the tribes of the mainland, continued 

 to flourish for a considerable period after the coming of the white 

 man, and in the latest work iron picks and shovels must have been 

 used. Scattered about this rock and on the slopes above and })elow 

 were fragments of partially shaped and broken vessels, besides numer- 

 ous rude cutting tools and picks of hard stone. The latter implements 

 had lieen shaped by flaking with hammer stones, some of which are 

 distributed with the debris. 



