\. 



GRAVE CAIRNS OF TIBURON 



289* 



together by okatilla steins, the shocks being sometimes nearly as high 



and broad as the jacales. A few of the scatophagic shells were found 



about the bramble marked graves at Pozo Bscalante, and a single one 



at Barranca Salina. In general the association of cemeteries and ran- 



cherias, or of graves 



and jacales, indicates 



that habitations are 



usually abandoned for 



a time when a death 



occurs within or near 



them. 



The mostconspicuous 

 cairn seen in Seriland 

 ■was well within Tibu- 

 ron. It stands on the 

 southern side of a little 

 rockbutte about a mile 

 and a half east-south- 

 east of Tinaja Anita, 

 south of the main ar- 

 royo, and near where 

 the trail from the tinaja 

 bifurcates toward Ar- 

 royoCarrizal and Puuta 

 Narragansett, respec- 

 tively. It is shadowed 



by a notably large and widespreading paloverde, and is in the form of 

 a cone estimated at 7 feet in height and 18 or 20 feet across the base. 

 The materials, at least on the surface, are rounded pebbles and cobbles, 

 possibly from the adjacent arroyos, though more probably from the 

 beaches, of which the nearest is miles away. It was not determined to 

 be mortuary.' 



On the death of the matron, a grave is scooped out by means of shells 



'As au indication of tho conditions for observation in Seriland, tliis cairn is fairly typical: it was 

 seenljut once (on December 25, 1895), and the observation waslinute<l to a few minutes by the attendant 

 circumstances. On the evening before the party landed at Campo Navidad, with the hope of work- 

 ing up the coast nearly or quite to Punta Torraenta on the following day ; but before morning a down- 

 bay gale was whitening tho waters of Bahia Kuukaak so fiercely as to prohibit embarkation. Meantime 

 the supply of water — that standard commodity of arid regions — was too nearly exhausted to permit 

 inaction ; so while Mr .Johnson with three guards ascended the Sierra to establish a new topographic 

 station, the leader of the party with the remaining seven men set out in search of water. The nearest 

 known aguaje was that of Arroyo Carrizal ; but under the hypothesis that some of the better-beaten 

 trails turning northward might lead to nearer water, one of them was taken ; and after turning back 

 from half a dozen false scents, the principal trail was followed to the well-known Tina.ia Anita, 15 

 miles by the trail from Campo Navidad; and here the party watered. It was on the return trip that 

 the cairn was discovered ; but the party were baden with tilled canteens and saucepans and cotfeepots, 

 the day was well spent, and the camp more than a dozen miles distant even over the air line travers- 

 ing spall-sprinkled taluses and sharp-edged rocks; moreover, the men were naturally and neccs- 

 earily heavily armed and on constant guard. Accordingly even the short stay and cursory not«s 

 involved an additional mile of darkness on a trail so rough as to cut through shoe-soles and sandals 

 and catch scents of blood ti) tempt coyotes to the camp site. Thus it was that the cairn was not more 

 critically examined and is not more fully described. 

 17 ETH 19 



Fig. 39— Mortuary oUa. 



