STUDY OF THE ANCIENT SOAPSTONE QUARRIES 
AVALON, SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, CALIFORNIA , 
November 2, 1898. 
AN INTERESTING DAY 
This has been a red-letter day with me from the point 
(r 
of view of hard work and good hunting in archeology and 
artistic effects. I set out at 7; 00 in the morning with 
the Mexican, Joe, as a guide, on a pony that was better 
fitted for an old woman than for a mountaineer, and that 
made the day slow and hard but I got there all the same. 
Climbed the steep ridges of the island by a trail to the 
summit and thence along the sharp ledges to the highest 
point, called Blackjack Mountain, and thence on a long 
ridge to Pots Valley, that is to say, the valley of the 
stone pots . 
I found the ancient quarry pits everywhere about the 
valley and across the range to the south side, square 
miles of the ridges having been worked over to greater 
or less extent. The soapstone seems to have a very wide 
