30 INTRODUCTION. 



of later interment ; often three or four graves were placed one over the 

 other, or two or three old graves were disturbed in making one of compar- 

 atively recent date. In several of the cemeteries the graves were partitioned 

 off by slabs of stone, boards, or bones of whales; in other instances such 

 partitions were wanting. No regularity was observed in the position of 

 the bodies, which were evidently done up in bundles, covered with mats 

 and other articles, and buried in the smallest space possible. That the 

 nearly universal custom of burying with the deceased articles valued while 

 living, and such as were thought to be of use in the future state, prevailed 

 among the Southern Californians to a very great extent is fully shown by 

 the large number found in the old cemeteries, many of which will be 

 described in the following pages. 



For several years the antiquities of California have been looked upon 

 with exceeding interest on account of the peculiar conditions under which 

 many implements and articles made of stone have been found, and the great 

 length of time which must have elapsed since their burial under beds of 

 volcanic material, where they are associated with the remains of extinct 

 animals. Many of these articles have been described, particularly by 

 Foster,* and by Bancroft,! the latter of whom gives several figures of arti- 

 cles found at great depths, which are of the same character as those from 

 the graves and shellheaps. 



Special examinations of the shellheaps and graves have been made by 

 several reliable persons, and descriptions of the heaps and articles found 

 have appeared from time to time in the Proceedings of the California 

 Academy of Sciences, and other journals. More recently Mr. Schumacher, 

 who has made extensive explorations for the Smithsonian Institution and 

 the Peabody Museum, has published several articles- in various journals 

 giving an account of his work.f At the time Mr. Schumacher was making 



* Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, vol. i, p. 232, 1869. 



t Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. iv, p. 697, 1875. 



tThe most important of these papers were printed in the Eeports of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for 1874 and following. The Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Surveys of the 

 Territories, vol. iii, No. 1, 1877. Popular Science Monthly, Jan., 1877. 



Articles hy Mr. Schumacher have also heen printed in the Archive fur Anthropologic, vol. viii, 

 and specimens collected by him have been described and figured in Bancroft's Native Races of the 

 Pacific States, vol. v, and in the paper by Dr. Rau on the Areba?ological Collection of the National 

 Museum (Smithsonian Contributions, No. 2S7, 1876). 



