44 EXPLORATIONS OF INDIAN GRAVES. 



San Miguel) a temple of wood, with paintings on its walls, and idols. San Miguel and 

 some of the other islands have been carefully searched for this temple, but in vain. Mr. 

 Schumacher considers Santa Catalina as the island on which was the temple. 



It is hardly necessary to refer again to the different utensils found in the graves 

 of these people, but it may be well to state that all the ollas, mortars, cups, pipes, and 

 pestles met with were fashioned out of steatite, or magnesian mica, a sort of soapstone, 

 consequently very soft, which alone was used for the ollas, sandstone of different 

 degrees of hardness for the pestles and mortars, and serpentine for the cups and pipes. 

 It is easy to understand that the ollas were readily carved from the soft soapstone-like 

 material by means of stone knives, but how the gigantic and symmetrical mortars 

 were hewn out with such rude tools is beyond our comprehension ; yet they must have 

 been easily procured, otherwise such lavish generosity in burying them with the dead 

 would hardly have been possible. It is thought that the steatite articles were not 

 made by the mainland Indians, since no deposits of this mineral were at their disposal, 

 but by the dwellers on the islands of Santa Catalina and Santa Eosa, where alone this 

 mineral existed, and the supposition is that the islanders trafficked with those of the 

 mainland for their commodities, giving in exchange utensils of steatite. The ollas 

 were doubtless used for cooking, as many of them bear marks of fire, and the mortars 

 for bruising grain, acorns, and grass-seeds, the smaller cups and basins for ordinary 

 household purposes, and the pipes for smoking. Canoes are mentioned by Cabrillo, 

 who states that some were small, holding only two or three persons, while others were 

 of sufficient capacity for ten or twelve. These were probably hewn, not burned, from 

 logs of redwood cast up by the waves. The one mentioned as discovered by our party 

 containing a skeleton was, however, formed of three planks, which had been lashed 

 together by sinew or cord, the joints being payed over with asphaltum. The orna- 

 ments and beads of domestic manufacture were made of the nacre of shells and of 

 small shells, but the glass beads found were undoubtedly of European workmanship. 

 There seems but little doubt that nets were used for trapping fishes, a small portion of 

 what appeared to be mesh- work being found. Eurs are spoken of as articles of clothing 

 in Cabrillo's narrative, but beyond this nothing is known. In speaking of the employ- 

 ment of furs, mention is made of the long, fine, black, and beautiful hair of the natives; 

 this statement is corroborated by the appearance of some hair found on the skull which 

 we have spoken of as being found covered with a copper pan.* 



It was at first supposed that a certain design had been followed in the manner of 

 interment, or rather of the posture in which the bodies were placed, but an examina- 

 tion of the notes already given will show that such was not the case, although most of 

 the entire skeletons discovered at La Patera were in the same position, but those at 

 Dos Pueblos were in all attitudes ; consequently we infer that there was no regular 

 mode of procedure. From the fact that so many loose and broken bones were found 

 close to the surface of the earth, it is probable that the same spot had been used over 

 and over again for burials, the remains of the previous occupants being shoveled out 

 to make room for new-comers. Perhaps the utensils disinterred were also made to serve 

 for more than one burial. A question in connection with the burials, which is yet to 

 be satisfactorily answered, is, How were these people enabled to pass the heads of 



* A second cranium cohered with a copper pan was discovered by Mr. Schumacher on Santa Cata- 

 lina Island. 



