14 SANTA BARBARA SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



by some exceedingly delicate process. These were cut evi- 

 dently from the thick shell of the Pachydesma crassatelloides, 

 and the drilling of so minute an aperture must have required 

 more than ordinary skill. Several implements, made in the 

 form of a bodkin, with a spiral groove from head to point, 

 from the columella of the Pomaulax undosus or Siphonalia 

 Kellettii, apparently, were also found in this deposit. These 

 were mostly pierced in the manner of the other ornaments, 

 above mentioned. Many shell beads of various sizes and 

 forms were common, and from a small olla were obtained 

 about forty oblong pieces, perforated at each end,, having the 

 pearly lustre of the Haliotis, and when properly strung may 

 have been used as a necklace. From the Olivella biplicata 

 they seem to have constructed their wampum, several 

 examples of which were found. Over several of the crania 

 were inverted shells of the Haliotis corrugata and Haliotis 

 splendens, the apertures of which were closed with asphaltum. 

 In one ease asphaltum was found enclosed in the two valves 

 of the Mytilus, and in another case it was found in the shell 

 of the Haliotis Cracherodii, covered by a Lottia gigantea. A 

 multitude of asphaltum ornaments were obtained from one of 

 the mortars, the use of which is difficult to determine, but we 

 conjecture that they were attached as pendants to some por~ 

 tion of the clothing. There , are several oil springs in the 

 neighborhood, from which these aboriginal inhabitants prob- 

 ably obtained the supply of asphaltum which seemed to be 

 applied to so many purposes by them. Upon the surface was 

 found a shallow cup moulded from this substance, and it was 

 often applied as a cement in repairing their broken utensils. 

 The mortars obtained were of various sizes, from the capacity 

 of a pint to that of several gallons. They were mostly made 

 from a tenacious sandstone, some rudely constructed, and 

 others symmetrical, as if made by rule. Some bear evidence 

 of an attempt at ornamentation, the upper portion having a 

 series of cavities about one fourth of an inch in depth and one 

 and one half inches long, filled with asphaltum to the general 

 level of the rim. Whenever one had been fractured, great 



