48 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



of being buried with the dead, many mortars set in the ground to the 

 rim, the pestle either in its opening or lying alongside, as if it had done 

 its duty only some days before. On this island, more dog skeletons were 

 found among the debris of the deserted hearths than on any preceding 

 one, although in only one instance were we able to collect many of 

 the parts of a full skeleton ; but we were more successful in obtaining 

 good skulls. Tradition speaks of an extinct race of dogs that inhab- 

 ited these islands. Even in 1857 a reliable gentleman thought he had 

 seen some of these same dogs on San Clemente, which he described to me 

 as large, slender, coarse, and hairy canines, resembling rather a coyote or 

 wolf than our better-natured domestic species. Whether the aborig- 

 ines feasted on this last resort of a starving modern traveler, we can- 

 not tell, although we know that they were not epicures according to our 

 taste, as the many bones of sea-fowls testify. The red-back abalone is 

 abundant among the shell-heaps, although none of this species is 

 found on the island at the present time, which is proven by the modern 

 shell-deposits accumulated by the Industrious Chinese, who dry this 

 shell-fish here in great masses for exportation to China. The material 

 for the manufacture of sandstone mortars and pestles is found among 

 the water- worn bowlders on the beach ; articles made of serpentine of 

 course had to be brought from abroad. Pots of magnesian mica, or 

 even fragments of them, were not found, and yet the presence of drift- 

 wood permitted cooking, as plenty of charcoal bears witness. During 

 our stay on this island, we obtained 127 mortars and about 200 pestles, 

 and many boxes of smaller implements, trinkets, and ornaments, which 

 swelled our collection considerably. 



At the appointed time, the schooner Star of Freedom returned, and 

 we left San Mcolas Island on June 30. 



Although the time of two months, as proposed for this tour of re- 

 searches, had nearly been consumed by the great ethnological results 

 obtained on the islands already visited, and I was eager to do some 

 work on the mainland to complete the series of my collections made in 

 the previous year, I could not decide on passing Catalina, which, even 

 by its historical records, promised such interesting additions to the 

 island collection ; yet I was aware of the magnitude of the work I had 

 undertaken to do in eight days, the time the schooner was to come and 

 take us off, a work which would require a month's diligent activity in 

 order to be exhaustive. If our short visit has, therefore, left much to 

 be done, the cause can easily be traced. But by our visit I was enabled 

 to gather valuable information, and to give such hints as will make a 

 search, if the necessary time is employed, a success, and reward a close 

 observer with much that is new, and probably of still greater interest 

 than the objects found on the other islands. 



The island of Santa Catalina (Map 11) [Plate 17] appears to be a long 

 mountain removed from its base and planted in the wide ocean, whose 

 waters are here wonderfully transparent on account of the micaceous 



