ART. III. -RESEARCHES IN THE KJOKKENMODDINGS AND 

 GRAVES OF A FORMER POPULATION OF THE SANTA BARBARA 

 ISLANDS AND THE ADJACENT MAINLAND.* 



By Paul Sohumachek. 



Plates 9-22. 



In compliance Tvith instructions from the Smithsonian Institution, 

 given April 11, 1875, I at once made preparations for the early start of 

 an expedition to Southern California, to the group of islands in the 

 Santa Barbara Channel and the neighboring mainland (Map 1) [Plate 9]. 

 The principal aim of the expedition to this region was the collection of 

 implements left by the former inhabitants, the observation of particu- 

 lars in connection with such finds, the description of the mode of 

 burial practiced by these people, and the delineation of topographical 

 characteristics, together with the preparation of sketches of such former 

 settlements. 



With three hired men and a camp -outfit, I left San Francisco on May 

 the 4th, on board of the United States revenue-cutter Eichard Eush) 

 Captain Baker. On the following day, we were landed on the island of 

 San Miguel (Map 2) [Plate 10], the most western of the group in Santa 

 Barbara Channel, and seeming to be a barren bank of sand rising from 

 . the ocean when approached from the northwest. From the northern 

 bold point to the eastern end, with the exception of a break formed by 

 Cuyler Harbor, the shores are rocky and high ; and from here along the 

 southern side, toward the low, sandy west end, a smooth ridge, about 

 5U0 feet high, abruptly ends in a bold shore-line. On the north side 

 this brown, dry, and dusty-appearing elevation slopes steeply, and is 

 arrested by immense dunes of drifting sand, which extend from the west 

 end in innumerable ridges of most varied formation, and nearly half the 

 width of the island, to the north point. Sand driven by northwest 

 winds is drifting into the bay, which is being gradually filled in at its 

 northwest side, where the dunes descend in a steep decline to the water's 

 edge, and their base is washed by the ocean. At the entrance of the 

 neat little bay, in which vessels may find good anchorage and shelter 

 lies an islet, and between it and the eastern end of the bay extends a 

 reef, over which heavy swells usually break, leaving a channel between 

 the rocky islet and the western terminus of the harbor. 



[* See note to Art. II, p. 27. A portion of this pai^er was published in a German 

 periodical (Archiv fiir Anthrojwlogie, vol. viii,p. 223). The descriptions are ruaiulv topo- 

 graphical, rather than archaeological. — Ed.] , 



