658 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



violets are almost trees. Nothing but rampant grasses and sedges 

 in the meadows, a few coarse, weedy flowers on the roadside, a 

 wealth of vegetation in the canals, and everything else bushes 

 and trees. No delicate plant hugs the ground for warmth, but 

 all shoot upward, only requiring the heavy rains to enable them 

 to rise higher and higher. 



THE ANCIENT ISLANDERS OF CALIFORNIA. 



BY PROF. C. F. HOLDER. 



"TOURING the past summer several attempts were made to 

 JLx thoroughly investigate the shell heaps, kitchen middens, 

 and graves of the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente, off 

 the coast of southern California. One of these parties, organized 

 by Mr. J. Neale Plumb, of New York, in the short time at their 

 command made some interesting finds. 



The two islands are respectively twenty-two and forty miles off 

 shore, each about twenty-two miles in length. Santa Catalina is 



-.- 



FIG. 1. GIGANTIC NATURAL SANDPIT AT SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND. 



a mountain range, with peaks twenty-five hundred or three thou- 

 sand feet in height, with a climate that makes it a most desirable 

 spot the year round, as the summer is delightful and in winter 

 the island is a garden in the sea. San Clemente rises to a height 

 of one thousand or twelve hundred feet at places, but is flat on 

 top, as though swept by the winds. 



