HOLMES] ABORIGIISrAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 115 



ceptional development in certain branches of handicraft and espe- 

 cially in the working of stone, Avhile more primitive but kindred con- 

 ditions prevailed to the north and east throughout California. 



The lithic antiquities of the Santa Barbara district, "which are 



attributed in large part to the Chumashan group, are 

 fornia'^ *^ "^ ° ^'^^^' characterized by great numbers of well-sculptured 



domestic utensils — bowl-shaped mortars, and long, 

 graceful pestles of sandstone, globular cooking pots, rectangular 

 and ovoid baking or boiling plates, tubular tobacco pipes of steatite, 

 and polished bowls and cups of serpentine. The quarries from 

 which the materials w^ere obtained are situated partly on the 

 mainland, but principally, it is believed, on the islands off the 

 coast. The shell heaps and village sites of the mainland and 

 of the islands have been examined by Schumacher, Bowers, Xel- 

 son, and members of the War Department surveys, and the quarries 

 of Santa Catalina Island have been described by Schumacher and 

 the present W'riter. Contrasting with the thin-w^alled bowl-like 

 mortars of this district and the slender, graceful pestles associated 

 with them, are the heavy, globular, conical, and cylindrical mortars, 

 the numerous mortars and clusters of mortars worked in outcrop- 

 ping rock masses with their heavy cylindric pestles, and the metate 

 slabs with their flatfish mullers which occur in great numbers in 

 many sections. 



Bone was much used for piercing implements and ornaments. The 

 beautiful shells of the coast — esi)ecially the haliotis and large clam — 

 were a favorite material for the manufacture of personal ornaments, 

 and the dentalium and other of the smaller shells served as orna- 

 ments and as a medium of exchange. 



In the middle and northern districts obsidian is plentiful, and 

 chipped implements made of this material are found in great num- 

 bers. The large knives, some of which measure 2 feet or more in 

 length, are marvels of the flaking art, and are second in this respect 

 in North America only to the slender flint blades of Tennessee. 

 There are also superb flint blades in some localities, and arrow- 

 points and spearheads of exceptional beauty are found, their manu- 

 facture having continued in some sections down to the present day. 

 Other features deserving special mention are the perforated dig- 

 ging weights made of numerous varieties of stone, the hook-shaped 



carvings and the killer-whale images of soapstone of 

 ern canforni"a'^' ^^^^ Santa Barbara region, and the plummet stones 



of middle California. Among the unique objects are 

 specimens of boat-shaped amulets and banner stones (imperforate) 

 of eastern type found in middle California. It is a remarkable fact 

 that the grooved ax, the celt, and the gouge, implements of so much 

 importance in eastern areas, do not occur, or are found but rarel}^, 



