t^o W^est American Scientist. 



THE ABORIGINAL CALIFORNIA MINT. 



In the vicinity of Santa Barbara, fifty years ago. still existed 

 the original (or aboriginal) Mint of California. The Indians of 

 Tulare County generally visited it once a year in bands of twenty 

 or thirty, male and female, on foot armed with bows and arrows. 

 They brought with them panoche, or thick sugar, made from 

 what is now called honey-dew and from the sweet Carisa cane, 

 and put up into small oblong sacks made of grass and swamp 

 flags; also nut pipes and wild tobacco pounded and mixed with 

 lime, which preparation of native tobacco was called pispewat 

 and used for chewing. These commodities were exchanged for a 

 species of money from the Indian Mint of the Santa Barbara 

 rancherias, called by them ''pongaJ' This " ponga " money 

 consisted of pieces of shell, rounded, with a hole in the middle, 

 made from the hardest part of the small, edible, white mussel of 

 the beaches, which was brought in canoes by the Barbarians from 

 the island of Santa Rosa. The worth of a rial was put on a 

 string which passed twice and a half around the hand, i. e., from 

 the end of the middle finger to the wrist. Eight of these strings 

 passed for the value of a silver dollar. — CoiJi Collector's Guide. 



A NEW LOCALITY FOR CHEILANTHES MYRIO- 

 PHYLLA, DESV. 



Read before the Santa Barbara Society of Natural History, 

 May 28th, 1887. 



This Mexican and South American fern which has been some- 

 times erroneously referred to Cheilanthes Fendleri, and which was 

 found by Mr. Spence growing on the high mountains of the east- 

 ern portion of this county, has recently been collected on Santa 

 Cruz Island by Mr. Ford, — probably a remnant of the flora of the 

 time when the Channel Islands formed a portion of the main land, 

 as the fossil elephant of Santa Rosa Island was a remnant of the 

 fauna of the same period. Lorenzo G. Yates. 



THUNDER, LIGHTNING AND RAIN 



Meteorologists have found that there can be no thunder and 

 lightning without rain. When thunder Is heard beneath a clear 

 sky, the reports must either come from distant clouds, or be the 

 result of some other cause than a discharge of electricity. Har- 

 vest or heat lightning is produced by a distant storm. Thunder 

 seldom accompanies heat lightning, the sound reaching only about 

 twelve miles, while lightning is often seen, by reflection upon near- 

 er clouds, at a much greater distance. 



