beads in great numbers, sickle-shaped ornaments of the abalone (haliotis) shell, and an ornament resembling dentalium, but made of a large clamshell, strewed about their heads.

During my explorations I also diligently searched for caves which might have been inhabited and from which important information might have been obtained. But in these investigations I did not meet with much success, partly because I had not the time necessary at my disposal, for scarcely had I got to a place where they existed, when my duties demanded my attention and obliged me to give up the exploration. I could, therefore, only designate on my map the place which I might, with some degree of certainty, suppose to be a formerly-inhabited cave, so as to facilitate later investigations. Once I was obliged to suspend work at Point Sal for a whole week on account of thick fog. I had time, however, to search in the gorges and rocks, hoping to find ethnological objects. I discovered and opened at that time the graves of Kĕs-mă-li, and not far off the cave, (Figs. 4 and 6.) But I was rather disappointed, when, after clambering through and over almost inaccessible places, I reached the cave, and found that it was only eight by four feet wide and eight feet high; and that there were in it only one pestle, with many oyster-shells, bones, and teeth. The floor was formed of stratified brown ash-like soil, in which were the above-mentioned objects. The circular entrance to the cave measured three feet in diameter. On the right-hand side of the entrance was a niche which had evidently been worked out of the hard but cracked sandstone, and was large enough for one person to sit comfortably therein. Toward the back part, the cave has also been worked out, so that a person might lie down stretched out; that is, I found that I could comfortably occupy these positions, although I am seventy-three inches in height. The whole cave, it appears to me, has been artificially made with a chisel. I did not examine the articles which it contained very closely, and must, therefore, refer to the collection itself. For the same reason, I have not said much about all the other objects of the collection, but refer for more particulars to the following catalogue and to the collection itself.

CATALOGUE OF IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN THE DIFFERENT GRAVES.

1. Cup for preparing paints, together with an egg-shaped grinder, No. 42. Kěs-mă-lī.

2. Mortar for preparing paints; found with red paint in bronze vessel.

Tě-mě-tě-ti.

3. Mortar, soft gray sandstone. Ni-po-mō.

4. Mortar, bard gray sandstone. Ni-pō-mō.

5. Mortar, soft gray sandstone. Ni-pō-mō.

6. Paint-cup, dark stone, was found, together with the pipe, No. 46, N.*

N =

Ni-po-mō; K, Kěs-mă-li; T: Te-mě-tě-ti; W Wă-lě-kbe

11. Mortar, from graves at the mouth of San Luis Obispo Creek. (See

map A.)

12. Mortar. N.

13. Mortar. N.

14. Mortar. N.

15. Mortar. T.

16. Mortar. N.

17. Mortar. K.

18. Mortar, repaired with asphaltum. W.

19-22. Mortar-halves, as found protecting skulls, (mostly of females,)

29. Pestle, sandstone. N.

30. Pestle, sandstone. N.

31. Pestle, well worked, found in cave at Point Sal. 32. Pestle, fragment. N.

Skull No. 57 supposed to be of a white man, and was found, with the rest of the bones, among the rubbish of a shellheap at Point Sal.

73. Slab, of which the linings of graves, in most cases, consisted. N.

86. Bill of a bird, found in the mouth of a skeleton. N.

87. Red color, found in a pot.

88. Beads of serpeutine and shell. N.

89. Mortar, (ornamental?) N.

90. Rim of a bowl of serpentine. N.

91. Seed found in a pot. N.

92. Arrow-heads found with skull No. 105, on a temporary campingground, as remarked in the text.

101. Bead of shell, finely finished and carved. K.

102. Shell ornaments.

103. Wall of grave. K.

104. Skull, animal, found on shell-heap. Point Sal.

105. Skull found on temporary camping-ground, as mentioned in text.

with arrow-heads, No. 92.

106. Spear-heads and arrow-points. N.

107, 108. Lance-heads.

109. Knives, as found especially on temporary camping-grounds. 110. Ornaments of serpentine. N.

111. Stone blade.

N.

112. Pestle, on shell-heaps. Point Sal.

113. Black paint, (?) found in pots, and often strewn about the skulls. 114. Knives, arrow-heads, &c., as found on surface near mouth of Santa Maria River and other places, with indications of a formerlypermanent camp.

115. Red paint.

116. Coin.

REMARK.-The name of the grave was attached to the article when exhumed, and the place described when it was found on the surface.

ACCOUNT OF THE BURIAL OF AN INDIAN SQUAW, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, MAY, 1874.

BY W. M. KING.

The body, cleanly washed, was dressed in its best clothing. Outside of the clothing, and confining it to the body, was a bandage, apparently a sheet, torn in half. The feet were covered and bound together, the arms confined to the side, and the face covered by a bandage. The body thus prepared was laid upon the ground, while the men of the party dug the grave. While the grave was being dug, an old squaw danced slowly once round the body, singing in a wailing tone, then seated herself at its head, and continued her singing and wailing, sometimes breaking off and addressing the corpse, at the same time patting its head with her hand. The grave being completed, the body was lowered into it, its head toward the south. The personal effects of the deceased were placed beside her. These consisted of a bundle of bed-clothing, several small bundles of calico, various tin cups and pans, a table-knife and spoon, a frying pan, and, lastly, a small quantity of live ashes was thrown in and the grave filled up. A fire was then lighted on top of the grave, the squaw who acted as chief mourner gathering the sticks. She also threw on the pile a number of platter-shaped dishes or baskets of plaited grass, which were burned. When the fire had burned itself out, the squaw above mentioned advanced and broke an oya, or water-cooler, on the grave, by violently dashing it on the ground. The party then dispersed.

A day or two afterward the house in which the woman died was purposely burned. The dishes and oya that were destroyed showed signs of long use, but were still perfectly serviceable. During the burial, no signs of emotion were shown by any of the party, either men or women, except by the squaw alluded to.

ANCIENT MOUNDS OF MERCER COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

BY TYLER MCWHORTER, OF ALEDO, ILL.

It may be approximately estimated that there are more than a thousand mounds in this county, yet persons who have not directed their attention to the subject would not suppose half that number to exist. These mounds are generally not such as to attract very special observation, not being of the larger size, the principal groups are very much flattened down by time, and seem to relate to a more remote antiquity than such as are more conspicuous.

These mounds are all located in the portion of the county bordering on the Mississippi River. This fact, that the western mounds are universally found on lands adjoining the rivers, suggests the inference that the race who erected them procured their subsistence mainly from the water, or that the bottom-lands of the rivers constituted their principal hunting-grounds.

The largest group of mounds in this county is found in Eliza Township (township 15 north, range 5 west,) on high timbered land, about a mile or so back of the Mississippi bluffs. In this group may be found over two hundred mounds within the distance of a mile. This group seems to be of great antiquity, and is quite flattened down by the elements-only rising a few feet above the general level. Probably successive forests have grown and passed away since they were constructed. Only a few have been opened, and these revealed only beds of ashes and a few stones. But what seems strange, traces of ashes are often found mixed with the earth of which the mounds are composed.

In the immediate vicinity are also found obscure lines of old embankments that seem to relate to the same age as the mounds.

On the bottom-lands of the Mississippi, not far from the foot of the bluff, in the same township, are found a few mounds of a very distinct character. They rise up with quite an abrupt elevation, and are manifestly of a much more recent date. Presuming that the more ancient mounds, in the high timbered lands, at some former time had the same abrupt elevation as these, it manifestly must have required many years. to reduce them by atmospheric action to their present flattened condition. From this apparent difference in the antiquity of the mounds, it is evident that the race or races who erected them continued to inhabit this country for a considerable length of time. In these more recent mounds human bones have been found with the usual accompaniment of ashes and stones. Also, in one of them a stick of wood was found, about eight inches in diameter, in a horizontal situation, a little to one side of the center of the mound; it was in quite a sound condition.

As no depressions of ground are ever found in the immediate vicinity of mounds, it is often difficult to conjecture where the earth was obtained of which they were constructed; but there is a circumstance in connection with the more recent mounds that seems to have a bearing