RELICS OF A RACE OF MOUND-BUILDERS IN CALIFORNIA. 27a 



relics unearthed. At the San Marcos Hot Springs, at the northern base of the 

 Santa Ynez Mountains, are also extensive remains, and excavations made there 

 have been well rewarded. Continuing on through the northern portion of Santa 

 Barbara County may be found many traces of this long-obliterated race, and 

 many places with good indications may be found which have never, as yet, been 

 subjected to an investigation. Notably is this the case in the Santa Maria Valley, 

 and in some portions of San Luis Obispo County. 



One interesting fact concerning the implements found is the extreme hard- 

 ness of the material used, and the almost utter impossibility of working it with 

 even modern stone-cutting tools. Many large bowls and mortars have been found 

 which have been worked from a solid block by some unknown means to an even 

 thickness all through, and of so perfect a regularity of outline as to excite the 

 wonder and admiration of all. When it is borne in mind that the material of these 

 bowls is of the hardest and flintiest description, the perseverance and skill of the 

 savage artificer, as well as the means used, are a wonder. Quite a profitable 

 business is now and has been for years done by various parties in prospecting the 

 country for these aboriginal relics, as such things find a ready sale at the various 

 museums, as well as with many private collectors of antique objects. 



In connection with this subject some mention of the famous "Painted Cave"^ 

 at Santa Barbara may not be out of place. An old Indian trail across the Santa 

 Ynez Mountains leads up the mountain side from one of the oldest of the settle- 

 ments of the padres — the Indian orchard. Some bee-hunters, several years since, 

 discovered not far from this trail an aperture in the rocks, which could only be 

 reached by clambering down a rope suspended from the rocky ledge above. 

 However, the cave was reached, and found to be a hollow in the rocks of con- 

 siderable size, with a sandy floor. But the most remarkable thing was the pres- 

 ence of a variety of inscriptions painted upon the rocky sides of the cavern, and 

 which have given rise to all manner of conjectures as to their meaning and origin. 

 So far, however, no satisfactory clew to their meaning has ever been found. — 

 San Francisco Chronicle. 



Sir Walter Armstrong, at Craigside, near Newcastle, England, has utiHzed a 

 brook to run a dynamo-electro machine by means of a turbine water-wheel, and 

 so manages to secure electricity enough to keep thirty-seven Swan lamps in a 

 state of incandescence in his house. In this case the motive power costs noth- 

 ing, and electric lighting in this way is an exceptional luxury. 



Mr. Buttgenbach, of the Lintorf lead mines, near Dusseldorf, has devised a 

 disintegrator which separates zinc blende and pyrites ore with great nicety. By 

 specific gravity this can not be effected, but the difference in the cohesive force 

 of the two minerals enables Mr. Buttgenbach to crush the zinc ore to a fine 

 sand and leave the pyrites in its original volume, so that they can be separated 

 by a sieve. 



