June 22, 1SS3.] 



SCIENCE. 



575 



kept in a box together. The older chicken soon 

 assumed the care of the little one, brooding it after 

 Its fashion, and pecking any disturbing hand. But 

 the strangest feature is, that when a dainty morsel, 

 such as a fly, is brought, it will call the little one 

 like a mother-hen, and give it the fly to eat. This 

 has been done repeatedly within the past week, 

 the sound made being unmistakably the food-call, 

 though, of course, pitched on a higher key. Yet it 

 cannot have heard that sound for at least two weeks, 

 and, in the ordinary course of events, should not 

 make it for eight months. Rbdducs. 



Cambridge, June 6. 



Lake Superior geology. 

 On reading Professor Chamberlain's paper in Sci- 

 ence, No. 16, and afterwards referring to his state- 

 ment in the third volume Wise. geol. reports (p. 423), 

 I see that I was mistalten regarding the Taylor's Falls 

 locality being fifteen miles away from other traps 

 (Science, No. 9). I now see that his language was 

 not intended to be taken as it was understood by me. 

 M. E. Wadswokth. 



Fish-hooks from southern California. 



In plates xi. and xii. of Lieut. Wheeler's Report 

 on archeology there are several drawings of orna- 

 ments found near Santa Barbara, Cal., and on the 

 adjacent islands, by Mr. Paul Schumaker and my- 

 self, which the editors are pleased to call fish- 

 hooks. A writer in the Century magazine for April 

 presents drawings of other specimens of like charac- 

 ter, found by myself in the same locality, and now 

 deposited in the Smithsonian institution. I also 

 have in my possession a series of these ornaments, 

 but it would require a broad stretch of the imagina- 

 tion to believe that they were intended for fish-hooks. 



SHELL ORNAMENT, 



ORNAMENT, SIZE OF ORIGINAL. 



The point, whicli in many instances curves down- 

 •ward, comes so near the stem that it would be next 

 to impossible for them to become hooked in a fish's 

 mouth. The point of one of my best specimens, 

 manufactured from the shell of the Haliotis, comes 

 within the sixteenth of an inch of the stem or 

 shank ; and were a line to be looped on the stem, and 

 cemented with asphaltum, as was practised by the 

 California Indians, the space would be completely 

 filled (see the annexed drawing). My specimens 

 range in size from one-half inch to two and a half 

 inclies in diameter, and were manufactured from 

 Haliotis shells and from bone. The first of these or- 

 naments of which I have any knowledge, I found in 

 a rancheria at Rincon, on the line between Santa 

 Barbara and Ventura counties ; and during five 

 years' subsequent residence at Santa Barbara, and 



the exploration of the mainland and islands, I had 

 an opportunity to study them in every stage of devel- 

 opment. I am convinced, that, with few exceptions, 

 they were designed for ornaments, as their shape pre- 

 cludes the idea of their use as 

 fish-hooks. They were proba- 

 bly suspended from the ears, 

 and possibly worn on other 

 portions of the body. The 

 true fish-hook of what may be 

 termed the Santa Barbara In- 

 dians has never, to my knowl- 

 edge, been figured ; yet they 

 are more commonly met with 

 in the rancherias and 'cemen- 

 taries ' in Santa Barbara and 

 Ventura counties than the 

 curved specimens we have been 

 considering. I send you draw- 

 ings of two specimens belong- 

 ing to my cabinet. These 

 hooks were made of two slight- 

 ly curved pieces of bone point- 

 ed at each end, and firmly tied 

 together at the lower end and 

 cemented with asphaltum. ui"«ix,al. 



They are somewhat similar to those still in use by 

 the South Sea Islanders. The larger specimen I 

 found with a skeleton at Point Dume, Ventura 

 county. There were several others similar to the 



one figured still retaining the thong and cement that 

 bound the parts together. The smaller specimen I 

 found on the surface in a rancheria one mile west 

 of the town of Ventiu-a. Stephen Boweks. 



Falls City, Jv'eb., June 4, 1883. 



