KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 215 
VI. ARCHEOLOGY. 
ARCHEOLOGY OF CATALINA ISLAND. 
BY J. R. MEAD, WICHITA. 
Read before the Academy December 29, 1900. 
Out in the Pacific ocean, 20 to 100 miles off the coast of southern California, 
scattered along north and south, are the ‘‘channel islands.’’ They are of igneous 
formation, in places volcanic, porphyry predominating, with extensive ledges of 
sandstone. The past summer I spent a short time on Santa Catalina, the most 
interesting of these islands. It is nearly all mountainous, arising abruptly from 
the ocean. It is sixteen miles in length by five or six in width, with an area of 
55,000 acres. If it were spread out flat it would be two or three times as large. 
It is owned by the Baring brothers, title coming from a Spanish grant. There 
is no more beautiful spot in America than the Bay of Avalon, near the southeast 
end of the island. In traveling over the island I found abundant evidence of 
ancient inhabitants, who disappeared early in this century and are lost to history. 
The first Portuguese ship sailing up the coast discovered the island, about a. b. 
1530, and anchored in the Bay of Avalon for several weeks. They found the 
island inhabited, and a large village on the shore of the bay. The people were 
inoffensive, hospitable, and friendly. 
The other islands also contained a large population of the same people, it is 
said, of different language and customs from the numerous people on the main- 
land. They made boats of skins (there being no timber of consequence on the 
island), with which they traversed the stormy ocean from one island to another, 
perhaps 100 miles apart. 
In no other spot on earth was marine life more abundant, from whales down 
to sardines. The waters swarmed with fish; herds of seals and sea-lions covered 
the outlying rocks and beaches. Under water, the rocks were covered with shell- 
fish. The abalone seemed to be the favorite food of the natives, as shell mounds 
ten feet deep, locally called ‘‘clambakes,’’ mostly of abalone shells, testify. To 
my surprise, I found these clambakes on the top of the mountain ridges. Ina 
placed called ‘‘Indian caves’’ were tons of heavy shells, carried there for food. 
The northern slopes of the mountains in places were covered with a low scrub 
oak, not averaging over ten feet in height. Perhaps the natives made their 
camps high up during the acorn harvest. Heavy stone mortars are found about 
these clambakes, or camps, which appear to have been used through long 
periods of time. 
The town of Avalon, a noted pleasure resort, is built on an ancient village 
site; and in excavating cellars quantities of stone vessels, ashes and shells are 
found. These clambakes appear to have been utilized as burying-grounds, as 
large numbers of skeletons, buried in rows or circles, are found in them. 
On the eastern center of the island are quarries of steatite, or soapstone, out 
of which the natives had cut thousands of vessels in situ, a nest of vessels being 
cut out of one spot, ranging in size from half a pint up to ten gallons. These 
vessels are used to cook their food. Their mortars were made of granite boulders. 
Some of these vessels, made of the hardest of known rocks, were almost as true 
