DEPARTMENT OF PREHISTORIC ANTHROPOLOGY. 127 



from the fact that it was found near the top of the equus beds of that 

 district, which have become celebrated in the paleontology and geol- 

 ogy of our country. The Mylodon, Glypdoton, Elephas, and three 

 species of Equus, all extinct animals, have been found fossilized in 

 these beds, and it seems agreed among scientists that these beds be- 

 longed to the Tertiary geologic period. 



Dr. Edward Palmer has brought in an interesting collection from a 

 prehistoric cavern in the Bay of Angeles, 200 miles northwest from 

 Guaymas, Lower California. (Accession 20608, Catalogue Nos. 139533- 

 139621.) 



Dr. Palmer sailed in December, 1887, from the port of Guaymas, 

 Sonora, for the station of the Gulf Gold Mining Company, established 

 in the Bay of Angeles, inside the island of that name, in the Gulf of 

 California and on the peninsula. In the immediate neighborhood of 

 this station he found a natural cave in the granite rock on the coast 

 facing the Bay of Angeles, looking eastward and about 30 feet above 

 the sea level. Debris had fallen so as to make the approach easy, and 

 had filled so as to make a large platform in front of the cave. Here 

 were strewn fragments of rock fallen from the cliff', some of which had 

 been used to wall up the mouth of the cave. A fine spring (laid down 

 in the charts) was just below the cave. The miners of the Gulf Gold 

 Mining Company had visited this spring, and seeing the wall at the 

 mouth of the cave had pried out some of the stones. Digging with 

 their palletos (alpen stocks) the}^ had exhumed some of the skulls, 

 which were left exposed to the air. This accounts for some being 

 white. Thus Dr. Palmer discovered the cave. 



It was a prehistoric burial place and nothing more. When cleared it 

 was 6 feet wide and 5 feet high at the mouth, 9 feet deep, retreating 

 and narrowing to its farther end. There were seven skeletons in all. 



No. 139533 was the bottom layer, made of rushes which were joined 

 and sewed together. We have three bundles. These were apparently 

 spread out to receive the corpses, the bones having been found thereon. 

 The skeletons were extended and the bones all in natural condition and 

 undisturbed, except the skulls dug out by the miners. The burial 

 place was evidently virgin. 



The bodies had been put in head first, for they were now with their 

 feet toward the mouth of the cave. 



In immediate contact with the skulls, as though they had been used 

 as coverings, were found the nets, three in number. Catalogue ^o. 

 139534. (For description and use of these nets as head coverings by 

 the aborigines see Venaga's History of Lower California.) 



i^o. 139535 is a girdle or sort of netted kilt made of twine for one 

 side and fiber bound in strips or bundles, say one-half an inch thick 

 and 8 or 9 inches long, for the other; the whole is covered with feathers. 



No. 139536 is a woven belt 15 inches long and 3 inches wide, nar- 

 rowed at the^nds to a single cord ; seemed to have passed around the 

 waist and over all, possibly only in front. 



