OCTOBEB 8, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



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or longer statements concerning the condi- 

 tions, in 1811, at sixteen of the missions. In 

 this document is contained almost the only 

 information at present available concerning 

 the peoples originally around such places as 

 San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Santa Cruz or 

 San Jose. It is greatly to be desired that 

 further sources in this field may be made 

 accessible. 



The Religion of the Liiiseno Indians of 

 So-uthern California, by Constance Goddard 

 DuBois. Vol. 8, Number 3. The paper just 

 mentioned affords an introduction to the re- 

 cent studies of the Mission Indian region. Of 

 special interest in connection with it is Miss 

 DuBois's paper on the native religion of one 

 part of the area. As in the case of Dr. Bar- 

 rett's Pomo work, the problem which this au- 

 thor set herself was a definite one, and the fact 

 that she spent some years in intimate associa- 

 tion with the Mission peoples gave her an in- 

 sight into many details. Many of the matters 

 merely indicated or suggested by the Spanish 

 document just touched upon are by Miss Du- 

 Bois, fully discussed and described in intimate 

 detail. Her paper covers the beliefs and cere- 

 monies of the Luiseno, a Shoshonean people 

 living about San Luis Eey, and includes some 

 account of their mythology. She devotes 186 

 pages and four plates to the subject. The 

 comparison of such recent and specialized re- 

 search with the old Spanish commentaries, so 

 far as they exist or may be brought to light, 

 will always be particularly interesting and 

 fruitful. 



Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians, by A. 

 L. Kroeber. Vol. 8, Number 2. From another 

 standpoint this ethnography of the Cahuilla, 

 a second member of the so-called Mission In- 

 dian group, opens a no less stimulating field 

 of inquiry. The Cahuilla are the least known 

 of the three modern mission tribes. Dr. 

 Kroeber outlines their geographical position, 

 discusses their varied environment, and deals 

 in detail with their material culture. His 

 paper points to the necessity of including the 

 Cahuilla with the " southern " cultural group 

 of California. The text is accompanied by 

 fifteen plates. 



The Culture of the Luiseno Indians, by 

 Philip Stedman Sparkman. Vol. 8, Number 

 4. Somewhat similar in general outline to the 

 paper just mentioned is this treatise on the 

 culture of the Luiseno. The author, who lost 

 his life in the field, studied the people through 

 a number of years, especially from the stand- 

 point of their language. The present paper 

 represents only a single aspect of his work 

 among them. In it he takes up the most prom- 

 inent facts of their culture and habitat, and 

 discusses briefly their arts and crafts, their 

 social institutions, and some of the more im- 

 portant features of their religion. At the 

 close of the paper he catalogues the plants 

 which were of importance to the primitive 

 Luiseno, and designates their various uses. 

 The paper is probably the least important of 

 three excellent studies by the same author, all 

 of which are shortly to be consigned to print. 



Recent Investigations Bearing on the 

 Question of the Occurrence of Neocene 

 Man in the Auriferous Gravels of the 

 Sierra Nevada, by William J. Sinclair. Vol. 

 7, Number 2. For upwards of forty years 

 the vexed question of the appearance of 

 man in Tertiary strata of California has 

 called forth a great deal of testimony, pro 

 and con. The question has centered to some 

 degree around a small number of speci- 

 mens, physical and cultural, found originally 

 in the region of Tuolumne, Calaveras and El 

 Dorado counties on the western slope of the 

 Sierra Nevada. This testimony has been col- 

 lated and reviewed by Mr. Sinclair in the pres- 

 ent paper. The outcome of this latest study 

 on the question quite possibly lays the whole 

 matter at rest. Mr. Sinclair holds that in the 

 face of all that has been said and written, no 

 competent evidence of Tertiary man in Cali- 

 fornia has ever to the present time been ad- 

 duced. His work lies along both original and 

 critical lines of study, and deals with first- 

 hand evidence obtained by personal research 

 on the ground. 



In general interest, therefore, the papers of 

 the twelvemonth just passed may be seen to 

 cover a wide field, both geographically and in 



