270 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Stephens and Charnay. These are strong facts, but our information regarding 

 the genuine Tablet is of such a nature that these facts, instead of deciding the 

 question, entangle us all the more hopelessly. Waldeck (1832) intimates that 

 the Tablet was entire when he visited the ruins, but he only depicted the central 

 stone and the right lateral slab ; but it was certainly complete at the earlier visit 

 (1831) of Galindo. Stephens (1840) states that " the stone on the right is brok- 

 en and, unfortunately, altogether destroyed; most of the fragments have disappear- 

 ed;^^ and he goes on to say that "from the few" fragments found he did not 

 doubt it contained a similar inscription to that on the left. Charney (1858) found 

 the two lateral slabs containing hieroglyphics "z« place in the sanctuary of the 

 temple ;" reiterating this statement twice with a circumstantiality of description 

 that bewilders one who has just read the testimony of Stephens or been told that 

 " by travelling to Washington " he may see one of these identical slabs. It 

 cannot be possible that Stephens, Charnay and Rau are all correct. It might be 

 possible that the missing slab was not so completely destroyed as Stephens 

 thought and that the fragments seen by him in 1840 were gathered up in 1842 

 and shipped to Washington ; but in coming to this conclusion we must ignore his- 

 statement that "most of the fragments " had disappeared. 



Between Charnay and Rau there is a gulf that no suppositions can cross un- 

 less we conceive that some Central American Antiquarian has duplicated Dr. 

 Rau's restoration by the help of other "fragments of a Tablet from. the ruins of 

 Palenque." 



RELICS OF A RACE OF MOUND-BUILDERS IN CALIFORNIA. 



With the exception of those who have made the subject an especial study^ 

 but few people are aware of how thickly the relics and traces of former habitations 

 of a long-forgotten and prehistoric race are scattered all over the Pacific coast. 

 For archaeologists the subject is a decidedly interesting one, furnishing as it doe& 

 an endless field for investigation and speculation. These traces are particularly 

 numerous in the southern portion of our State, and in that section the researches, 

 of scientific men have met with an especially rich reward. Numerous parties,, 

 under the auspices of various organizations, have at various times gone over por- 

 tions of the field and made many and important discoveries. But to the careful 

 searcher there is yet a large and unexplored region which will amply repay any~ 

 labor expended in that direction. On the borders of the Colorado Desert tracer 

 of former habitations are to be found in the presence of enormous heaps of 

 broken crockery, and trails worn so deep in the solid rock that thousands of feet 

 continually passing to and fro must have consumed ages before the pathw9,ys as- 

 sumed their present form, and many other indications may be seen going to show 

 that at some remote period that now desert waste must have sustained a vast 

 population. 



