1 882.] From Napa County, California. 205 



It is not probable that such shallow mortars were used for the 

 pulverization of acorns or pine -nuts, or any other of the principal 

 articles which constituted the bulk of the aboriginal cuisine. 



This supposition is further supported by the fact of the great 

 number of mortar holes which may be seen in the outcroppings 

 of the permanent or fixed rocks in the immediate neighborhood. 



The territory from which the material under review was ob- 

 tained, embraces an area of some two hundred acres ; for the 

 greater part a fertile intervale or small valley surrounded by hilly 

 ground which merges by moderately inclined or gentle slopes 

 into the general level. This intervale is about a mile in length, 

 if measured between the extreme points, though probably not 

 one-fourth of a mile in width at the widest place. When the 

 present owner purchased it, it was for the most part a willow 

 swale about midway of its length; where on the easterly side the 

 slope descends to the intervale, are several perpetual, running 

 springs of most excellent water. These springs are only a few 

 rods apart. In convenient proximity outcroppings of volcanic 

 pudding-stone occur, which are full of mortar-holes of various 

 sizes, from four inches in diameter and depth to twelve inches in 

 diameter and depth. None of the mortar-holes in the fixed rocks 

 are as shallow as those in the portable mortars figured above 

 from which we may infer that these latter were used for some 

 special rather than for general purposes, perhaps for the grinding 

 of paint or medicine, while the fixed mortars were used for gen- 

 eral purposes like the pounding of acorns, nuts, &c, &c. Of 

 these latter it is often the case that the larger holes are united at 

 the top and for an inch or more down, through close proximity 

 and abrasion, through constant use the intervening wall or side at 

 the top breaking through. As the springs are more numerous 

 and better situated at this middle station, which by way of dis- 

 tinction may be called station A, so also are the mortar holes 

 more numerous, though the latter are also met with at or near 

 the extreme points or ends of the intervale, which runs in a gen- 

 eral way northerly and southerly. The northerlypoint may be 

 indicated as station B, and the southerly as station C. 



Pestles were collected at all of these stations. Some arc hardly 

 more than symmetrical cobble-stones, while others are of the 

 usual pestle-form. None of them are nicely finished, and like 

 the mortars are exceedingly simple and rude. 



