SMITHSONIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 89 



ployed boats constructed of planks. Perhaps the most curious wooden object 

 from California is an implement i-esembling a sbort sword, terminating op- 

 posite the point in a broad flat handle, inlaid with a Ivind of mosaic of HaUotis- 

 shell (Fig. 316, Santa Cruz Island). It is stated that " sabres of hard wood 

 with edges that cut like steel " were among the weapons of the California 

 Indians (H. H. Bancroft) ; but the object in question is neither sharp-edged, 

 nor, as it appears, made of very hard wood, and, being, moreover, thin and 

 light, hardly coidd have formed an efficient weapon. Hence there is a prob- 

 ability that it represents either a weapon of parade, or some kiud of implement 

 designed for jieaceable purposes. From the same localities were derived parts 

 of planks and other fragmentary articles of wood, the use of which cannot 

 now be determined. 



By far the most remarkable relic of vegetable substance in the collection 

 is a piece of matting of split cane, fifteen inches long and about nine inches 

 wide, which was found under very peculiar circumstances on Petite Anse 

 Island, near Vermilion Bay, on the coast of Louisiana. A notice by Professor 

 Henry, affixed to the specimen in question, runs thus : " Petite Anse Island is 

 the locality of the remarkable mine of rock salt, discovered during the civil 

 war, and from which, for a considerable period of time, the Southern States 

 derived a great part of their supply of this article. The salt is almost chem- 

 ically pure, and apparently inexhaustible in quantity, occurring in every jjart 

 of the island (which is almost five thousand acres in extent) at a depth below 

 the surface of the soil of fifteen or twenty feet. The fragment of matting 

 was found near the surface of the salt, and about two feet above it were re- 

 mains of tusks and bones of a fossil elephant. The peculiar interest in regard 

 to the specimen is in its occurrence in situ two feet below the elephant re- 

 mains, and about fourteen feet below the surface of the soil, thus showing the 

 existence of man on the island prior to the deposit in the soil of the fossil 

 elephant. The material consists of the outer bark of the common southern 

 cane (Arundinaria macrosj)erma^, and has been preserved for so long a period 

 both by its silicious character and the strongly saline condition of the soil." 

 This specimen, so interesting on account of its associations, was presented to 

 the National Museum by Mr. J. F. Cleu. 



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