HOLMES ] 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 



217 



mount ain roads was an extremely rough one. While at the mines 

 we were the guests of Sefior Amador, owner of the hacienda on 

 which the Mountain of the Knives is situated. The lower slopes of 

 the mountain are covered with open pine forest, in places over- 

 grown with tall grass and on the steeper parts with underbrush. 

 Everywhere are scattered fragments of obsidian, and groups of 

 irregular mounds, alternating Avith depressions and pits, extend 

 indefinitely up the foivst-covoi-ed ridge. The pits and depressions 



Fig. 93. Obsidian worlifr« iu California. From a lay tigure model, life size, prepared 



by the author. 



mark the sites of the ancient excavations, while the hillocks are the 

 heaps and ridges of debris thrown out from them. 



The enterprising peoples of the valleys below must have operated 



the mines vigorously for centuries to have thus 

 The Fittings workcd over hundreds of acres of the mountain side. 



The deep pittings and heavy ridges of excavated 

 debris are practically continuous over an area of a mile or two in 

 length, with a width reaching in places possibly to a fourth of a mile. 



