ARTIFICIAL SHELL-DEPOSITS. 253 



less practised in his trade, these objects are clumsy, of unelegant shape, and 

 exhibit a shallow cavity. Shell beads and other ornaments of shell were abun- 

 dantly made on the islands, and probably served as articles of trade. The fine 

 cooking-vessels of potstone, usually globular, and wrought with great skill, 

 appear to have been important objects of barter. The material of which they 

 are composed has thus far not been discovered in situ on this coast, though there 

 are indications that it occurs in Southern California. The pots, cut out of a solid 

 piece, must have passed into commerce in a finished state ; for, being usually 

 very capacious, the raw material of the larger ones cannot have weighed less 

 than several hundred pounds ; and they present, moreover, so much similarity 

 in shape and execution, that their distribution from one centre of manufacture 

 appears highly probable. There is hope that the quarry of the aborigines will 

 be discovered ; and if that happens, and in confirmation of our supposition, a 

 manufacturing-place has there existed, we shall gain an interesting insight into 

 the methods employed by the natives of this coast in one of their mechanical 

 arts.* 



"As the implements used in digging the ground consisted at best only of 

 stone, it follows that a rocky condition of the ground hindered the laying out of 

 a village, and therefore required the deposition of a stratum of a more yielding 

 substance, which was presented in the sand, everywhere plentiful on the coast. 

 If, therefore, a natural, easily-worked ground was wanting in a locality otherwise 

 favorably situated for a settlement, it became necessaiy to cover the surface with 

 a layer of sand, corresponding to the extent of the village and the depth of the 

 huts. Upon this the latter were built, and the kitchen-refuse began to accumu- 

 late, gradually forming what are now shell-heaps. In thus prepared village-sites 

 we find the graves always in the artificial sand-bank, or — what is the same — the 

 shell-heaps. If, however, the soil is sandy, or otherwise of a yielding character, 

 we have to look for the graves outside of the area of the village. They consist 

 in the southern part of California of a communal excavation, about five feet 

 deep, in which the skeletons are placed in narrow comj)artments, formed either 

 of slabs of limestone (common on this coast) or of whale-bones. They generally 

 are deposited in layers, one above the other, lying on the back, and having the 

 knees drawn up. But this position is often disturbed by the rejieated opening 

 of the graves. In order to convey an idea of the limited space allowed to the 

 defunct Californian, we will state that a cemetery extending over an area of six 

 hundred square feet inclosed nearly four hundred skeletons. In Oregon the hut 

 of a dead native was used as his grave, after it had been burned down ; but 

 interment in single graves also took place." 



* Mr. Schumacher discovered afterward potstone-quarries and pot-factories on Santa Catalina Island. His 

 account is contained in the " Eleventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peahody Museum of American 

 Archaeology and Ethnology," 1878; p. 258, etc. 



