EXCAVATIONS. B7 



of the laborers as a seed used by the present California Indians and natives in making 

 demulcent drinks and eye-washes, the Spanish name being chia (Salvia Columbaria: 

 Benth.). 



A second trench, opened 40 feet from the first, yielded quite a number of excellent 

 crania and other specimens, among which were fishbones, crenated teeth (of fossil 

 shark possibly), and a very large olla containing bones and covered on top with the 

 epiphysis of a whale's vertebra. The following are the notes furnished by the gentle- 

 man in charge of the excavations at this point: First trench, 6 feet by 2, running 

 north and south, trending to the westward. Indications of burials, whales' bones, and 

 rocks set up vertically. Two and one half feet below the surface found skeleton with 

 face downward, head to the north. Three feet below surface reached a large flat stone, 

 which being removed was found to cover ribs and shoulders of a female skeleton, head 

 pointing north, body resting on left side. A small mortar was over the mouth, small 

 sandstone mortar and pestle of fine workmanship near top of head. This locality prov- 

 ing rather unprolific, a second trench was commenced 40 feet below last, nearer cliff, and 

 about of same size. Two feet below the surface, to our great surprise, a large steatite 

 olla was discovered, which proved to contain the skeleton of an infant wrapped in 

 matting. Unfortunately, upon exposure to the air, the bones crumbled away. Beneath 

 the olla was a cranium, apex west, face north. Three feet below the surface were two 

 skeletons in fair condition, with crania to the north. Our discoveries this day had de- 

 veloped so much of interest that it was not until darkness had overtaken us that we 

 discontinued our work. 



In order to give some idea of the amount of material recovered during the excava- 

 tions, a record of each day's work follows : 



June 10. — This morning began work shortly after sunrise at both trenches opened 

 the day before, digging in a westerly dh-ection in the first. In this, numbers of crania 

 and bones were found in similar positions to the first met with, and also several fine 

 ollas, tortilla-stones, mortars, and pestles. All these utensils were invariably in the 

 immediate vicinity of the heads of the skeletons ; in fact, in many instances the crania 

 were covered by large mortal's placed orifice down. In the second trench, the digging 

 was in an easterly direction, and the first discovery that of a skeleton and a fragment 

 of iron near the right hand, probably a knife or spearhead, which, archaeologically 

 speaking, was a source of great grief to us, our hope being that no remnants of Span- 

 ish civilization would be found iu these graves. It could not be helped, however, al- 

 though a great deal of prehistoric romance was at once destroyed. Near this skeletou 

 was another, and by its side the first pip'e met with, which was similar in appearance 

 to a plain modern cigar-holder, and consisted of a tube of the stone called serpentine, 

 8 inches long, the diameter of the wider orifice being a little over an inch. At the 

 smaller end was a mouth-piece formed from a piece of a bone of some large water-fowl, 

 and cemented in place by asphaltum. How these pipes were used with any degree of 

 comfort is impossible to surmise. 



Continuing this excavation, the next discovery was a steatite olla containing a 

 skull, differing in many respects from those found in the graves ; if from one of the same 

 tribe, it shows marked differentiation. Near the olla was a large sandstone mortar, 

 over 2 feet in diameter, and behind it another olla containing more bones, and another 

 X>ipe, 10J inches in length, and near this latter article a smaller olla filled with red 



