SOME RUINS ALONG THE TAPASITA. 55 
representations of animals of any sort are 
very unusual upon their decorated sur¬ 
faces. The bird seems more nearly to 
resemble the chaparral cock or California 
road runner than any other bird in this 
part of the world. Geometrical designs 
are frequent, and of these the zigzag, 
stairlike forms are the most common. 
Many other things had been found in this 
mound, including a number of utensils of 
pottery, together with the human bones 
of their makers. No doubt similar relics, 
with some variations, could be found in 
all these mounds. We saw, I think, many 
hundreds of these ruins in the Piedras 
Verdes region, most of them merely 
mounds suggestive of what they once 
were. Ancient ditches could also be 
plainly made out along the hillsides, 
showing that the former inhabitants cul- 
