were very numerous — was attached to a plank, and at low tide 

 several men would drag the slab back and forth over the wet 

 sand, one of their number riding" on the board to weight it ; 

 thus by friction and much toilsome effort the wood was grad- 

 ually polished. The building of one of these roughly fashioned 

 craft required many weeks of unremitting toil. 



It was in the application of the asphaltum, however, that 

 the ingenuity of the primitive mind is exemplified in that fasci- 

 nating manner that renders its study such an endless source of 

 delight to the technically curious. 



In small steatite vessels the native melted his bitumen over 

 a slow fire. After all impurities had been removed, he drained 

 the liquid into great abalone shells and set it away to cool and 

 harden. The abalone was his favorite and must nutritive food, 

 and he preserved the shell of that mollusk with as much solici- 

 tude as we do today ; ordinary ones were kept aside to be used 

 as containers, while the exquisitely colored, more nacreous ones, 

 were employed as ornaments or in the making of mosaic work. 

 When the asphaltum was needed for the paying over of boats 

 or other purposes, the artificer heated small pebbles, deposited 

 them upon the solid mass in a shell, and it was soon liquefied. 

 He then placed another shell over the first, and without burn- 

 ing his hands, without cracking the container, he poured the 

 warm, fluid asphalt dextrously where needed. 



The numerous fishing boats reported by early Spanish ex- 

 plorers as plying between the Islands and the mainland, were 

 doubtless the bitumen-covered craft of these pelagic people. 

 There is evidence of the sea-worthiness of these boats in the 

 well authenticated reports that the Santa Catalina people trav- 

 elled north many hundreds of miles, in search of adventure and 

 new fishing beds. 



Bitumen, curiousl}- produced by a natural source far off 

 shore, had turned a new page in the experience of the Southern 

 California native, and the chance discovery of that material 

 changed the trend of his culture to such a degree as to modify 

 his customs, habits and aspirations. 



It was not only for boats that the native used an asphaltum 

 coating. Since it could be applied to stone and wood with 

 equal facility, he reasoned that it would serve as well for water- 

 proofing basketry, and this he proceeded to do. Experience and 

 skill demonstrated the advantages of a bottle-shaped vessel, 

 payed over with asphaltum, as the most practical water con- 

 tainer. So pleased was the discoverer of this process with his 

 efforts,, that he decorated and ornamented the neck of his un- 

 breakable water jug with beads and bird-bone sections, set in 

 the plastic substance in lines and geometric patterns. 



Later, when the native learned the gentle art of music, 



43 



