22 



THE WEST-AMEKICAN SCIENTIST. 



better class of Mexicans, their 

 father having been a Mexican or 

 Spaniard. This woman is proba- 

 bly the only living pure blooded 

 native south of 24 degrees 30 min- 

 utes. 



The Indians of Lower Califor- 

 nia south of 24 degrees 30 minutes 

 buried their dead in caves below 

 shelving rocks, without regard to 

 the points of the compass, usually 

 painting the bones, but how they 

 made the bones clean and ready 

 to be painted is still unknown. At 

 Zorillo we were shown a small 

 cava in a granite rock by our local 

 guide, who said that an Italian 

 collector, several years before, had 

 found bones of a "gentile," the 

 Mexican name for an Indian or 

 heathen. 



The sand in the cave was dry, 

 coarse disintegrated granite, about 

 a foot deep. By digging in it I 

 found the well preserved skeleton 

 of an adult male Indian, who was 

 perhaps the last of the Pericues. 

 This skeleton was wrapped in 

 cloth made from the bark of the 

 palm and bound with three ply 

 cord which had been plaited as 

 sailors make sennit, the material 

 being fiber of the agave. Dr. W. 

 H. Dall mentions in the Smithso- 

 nian contributions to knowledge, 

 number 318, that the mummies of 

 the Aleutian Islands, were bound 

 with cord quite similarly braided 

 in square sennit. 



The package, which was about 

 twenty inches long, did not appear 

 to have been disturbed since bur- 

 ial, although a femur and some 

 small bones were missing, and 

 nearly all of the bones had been 

 unjointed. The bones of the hand 



were inside of the skull, which 

 was full of small bones and sand. 

 Meanwhile Dr. Ten Kate found 

 the skeleton of a girl about twelve 

 years old. This was also in excel- 

 lent condition, although differing 

 from those found elsewhere, in not 

 having been painted, a rare excep- 

 tion. For the skeletons found by 

 Dr. Ten Kate on Espiritu Santo 

 Island, at Encenada and Los Mar- 

 tires, which he kindly allowed me 

 to inspect, had all been painted the 

 usual brick red, with the excep- 

 tion of one the Doctor found at 

 Los Martires which had a skull of 

 very inferior, almost idiotic form. 



The few bones we afterwards 

 found in a cave near Candelario 

 and several skeletons found at San 

 Pedro by Dr. H. Ten Kate had 

 also been painted. All of the 

 skulls were of one general form, 

 namely, the pyramidal — high, long 

 narrow, with wide, prominent 

 cheek bones. 



The only ornaments, or other 

 objects of aboriginal handiwork 

 found with the skeletons, were two 

 small, neatly worked, pearl oyster 

 shells, which were in the package 

 with the boues of the young girl 

 found at Zorillo. These shells 

 had been polished on the convex 

 side, the edges finely serrated and 

 pierced at the apex as if to be 

 suspended about the person for 

 ornament. 



Our readers are presented this 

 month with a very valuable table 

 computed from thirteen years 

 observation at the signal service 

 of this place, and for which we 

 are indebted to the kindness of 

 J. C. Sprigg, Jr., Sergt. S. S. 



