Ruins of Pecos.
Ruins of Pecos.
Of the ruined Pueblo towns no extended description is necessary, since they present no contrasts with those still inhabited which have been described.Pecos was formerly one of the most important, and was still inhabited in the early part of the present century. The cut copied from Emory for Mr Baldwin's work, represents a portion of the ruins, which include Spanish and aboriginal structures, both of adobe. Emory noticed large well-hewn timbers. Davis says the ruins of the village cover two or three hundred yards, and include large blocks of stone, square and oblong, weighing over a ton, with marks of having been laid in mortar. Hughes speaks of the traces of a stone wall eight feet high, which once surrounded this Pueblo town. Kit Carson told Mr Meline that he found the town still inhabited in 1826. It was here that in former times was kept burning the everlasting fire which formed part of the religious rites in honor of their deity, or, according to the modern account, of Montezuma. There is no evidence, however, that the aborigines in ancient times had any deity, or monarch of that name; it is quite certain that they did not hear of the Aztec monarch Montezuma many centuries before he began to reign; just possible that they did hear of his fame a few years before the Spaniardscame to New Mexico; but altogether probable that they first heard the name of Montezuma, of the Aztec people, and of their former migration southward, from the Spaniards themselves, or their native companions.[XI-63]
With the Quivira located by Thomas Gage and other early writers and map-makers, "on the most Western part of America just over against Tartary," as with the great city of Quivira which Francisco Vasquez de Coronado sought and has been popularly supposed to have found, I have at present nothing to do. It should be noted, however, that the latter Quivira was not one of the Pueblo towns of the Rio Grande, but a town of wigwams on the plains in the far north-east. The ruined town of Quivira or Gran Quivira, east of the Rio Grande, entirely distinct from that of Coronado, includes, like Pecos, a Spanish church among its ruins. The buildings are of hewn stone and of great extent. Gregg speaks of an aqueduct leading to the mountains eight or ten miles distant, the nearest water. This town was very likely, like many others, ruined at the revolt of 1680. Abó, Quarra, Laguna, and the rest, present no new features. There are, moreover, on the Puerco River—a tributary of the Rio Grande, and not that of the Colorado Chiquito already mentioned—many traces of Pueblo buildings which have no definite names.[XI-64]
SEVEN CITIES OF CÍBOLA.
Rock-Inscriptions—Rio Grande.
Rock-Inscriptions—Rio Grande.
The cut shows some rock-inscriptions copied by Froebel in the valley of the Rio Grande. In the Sierra de los Mimbres, towards the source of the Gila, are some old copper mines, and connected with them an adobe fort with round towers at the corners, but I do not know that these works have ever been considered of aboriginal origin. In a newspaper I find the remarkable statement that "from the volcanic cones of the Cerrillos was furnished, a great part, if not all, the Chalchiuite, so much worn for ornament, and so highly prized by the ancient Mexicans.... The ancient excavations made in search of it are now distinctly visible, and seem to have been carried to the depth of two hundred feet or more."[XI-65]
The ruins of Old Zuñi have already been described, and there is no reason to doubt that both these and the other remains on the Zuñi River, represent towns that were inhabited when the Spaniards first came northward. Indeed it is almost certain that they, togetherwith the Pueblo town of Zuñi, represent Coronado's famous 'seven cities' of Cíbola. Most writers have so decided, as Gallatin, Squier, Whipple, Turner, Kern, and Simpson.[XI-66]The course and distance of Coronado's march from the Gila agrees more exactly with Zuñi than with any other town; the location of the 'seven cities' within four leagues together, in a very narrow valley between steep banks, as also their position with respect to the Rio del Lino, Colorado Chiquito, correspond very well with the Zuñi ruins; Coronado's Granada, on a high bluff, with a "narrow winding way," was quite probably Old Zuñi; Cíbola is said to have been the first town reached in coming across the desert from the south-west, and the last left in returning; the positions of Tusayan, a province of seven villages, five days' journey north-west from Cíbola, and of Acuco, five days eastward, agree very well with the location of the Moqui towns and of Acoma with respect to Zuñi. Finally we have Espejo's statement that he visited the province of Zuñi, twenty-five leagues west of Acoma; that it was called Zuñi by the natives and Cíbola by the Spaniards; that Coronado had been there; and that he found there not only crosses and other emblems of Christianity, but three Christians even. Coronado left three men at Cíbola, and their statements to Espejo respecting the identity of Cíbola and Zuñi, must be regarded as conclusive.[XI-67]
GENERAL RÉSUMÉ.
New Mexican antiquities, divided as at the beginning of the chapter into six classes, may be briefly considered, en résumé, as follows: 1st. "Remains of ancient stone and adobe buildings in all stages of disintegration, from standing walls with roofs and floors, to shapeless heaps of débris, or simple lines of foundation-stones." This first class of remains has received most attention in the preceding pages, and little need be said in addition. It has been noted that adobe is the material used almost exclusively in the Gila and other southern valleys, as in Chihuahua, while further north stone is preferred. The most important fact to be noted is that all the ruins, without exception, are precisely identical in plan, architecture, and material with the Pueblo towns now inhabited or known to have been inhabited since the coming of the Spaniards. Many of them, particularly those of the Chaco cañon, may have been much grander structures and have displayed a higher degree of art than the modern towns, but they all belong to the same class of buildings.
2d. "Anomalous structures of stone or earth, the purpose of which, either by reason of their advanced state of ruin, or of the comparatively slight attention given them by travelers, is not apparent." Such remains, which have been described as far as possible wherever they have appeared, are: I. Fortifications, like the stone enclosures on the Pueblo Creek and head-waters of the Rio Verde; and the battlements guarding the path of ascent to Old Zuñi. Many of the ruined towns were, moreover, effectually fortified by the natural position in which they were built. II. Mound-like structures and elevations. These include the low terraced pyramid reported on the Gila near the Casa Grande, and another of like nature on the north side of the river; the shapeless heaps of earth and stones in the Gila and Salinas valleys, most of which are doubtless the remains of fallen walls, but some of which may possibly have a different originand design; and some small heaps of loose stones on the Gila at the mouth of the Santo Domingo. It is noticeable that no burial mounds, of so common occurrence in many parts of America, have been found here; and no pyramids or mounds presumably connected in any way with religious rites, indeed, nothing of the nature of temples or altars, save the estufas still in common use. III. Excavations. These are, a reservoir with stone walls measuring forty by sixty yards, reported by the early writers near the Casa Grande on the Gila; a circular depression forty paces in diameter on the north bank of the Gila, and a similar one at Navajo Spring near the Rio Puerco of the West; a triangular depression at the mouth of the Santo Domingo; quarries of sandstone near some of the Chaco ruins, and pits in the Salinas, whence the earth for building is supposed to have been taken; and the circular holes that penetrate the cañon walls of the Chaco. IV. Enclosures for various or unknown purposes. Such is the circular enclosure a hundred yards in circumference near the Casa Grande, and another north of the river; the structure indefinitely reported as a labyrinth up the Gila from the Casa Grande; a small round enclosure on the Salado; an elliptical enclosure of stone and mortar, eight by sixteen feet, and divided into two compartments, in the Chaco cañon; and the large and irregular lines of foundation-stones in the Gila Valley above the San Pedro. It will be observed that there is very little of the mysterious connected with these remains of the second class, and a great part of that little would probably disappear as a result of a more careful exploration.
3d. "Traces of aboriginal agriculture, in the shape of acequias and zanjas, or irrigating canals and ditches." Such remains have been noticed in connection with many of the ruins, particularly in the south, and require no further remarks. So far as described, they are nothing but simple ditches dug inthe surface of the ground, of varying depth and length. The earlier reports of canals with walled sides are very probably unfounded.
New Mexican Stone Axes.
New Mexican Stone Axes.
4th. "Implements and ornaments." These are not numerous, include no articles of any metal whatever, and do not differ materially from articles now in use among the Pueblo Indians. Such relics have been found scattered among the débris of the fallen walls, and not taken from regular excavations; consequently no absolute proof exists that they are the work of the builders, though there can be little room for doubt on that point. The wandering tribes that have occupied the country in modern times are much more likely to have sought for and carried away relics of the original inhabitants, than to have deposited among the ruins articles made by the modern Pueblo Indians. A detailed account of each relic would be useless, but among the articles that have been found are included,—I. Implements of stone. Metates, or corn-grinders, generally broken, were found at various points on the Gila, Salado, and among the ruins near Pecos. Stone axes, are shown in the cut from Whipple, of which No. 4 was found on the Salado, where implements called hoes, and a stone pestle, are also reported. A stone axe was also found on the Colorado Chiquito. Arrow-heads of obsidianwere picked up at Old Zuñi, on the Colorado Chiquito, on the Rio Puerco of the west, and at Inscription Rock; of carnelian on the Colorado Chiquito; of agate and jasper on the Rio Puerco; and of quartz near Pecos and on Pueblo Creek. Ross Browne heard of bone awls having been dug up at the Casa Grande. II. Ornaments. Sea-shells were found at the Casa Grande, on the north bank of the Gila, and in the Salado valley; also on the Gila, a bead of blue marble finely turned, an inch and a quarter long; and another bead of the size of a hen's egg; also a painted stone not described, and a beaver's tooth. Several green stones, like amethysts, were found on the Salado; fragments of quartz crystal at the Casa Grande; of agate and obsidian among the Gila mines; and of obsidian on Pueblo Creek. Clay balls from the size of bullets to grape-shot, many of them stuck together, are reported on doubtful authority.[XI-68]
5th. Pottery, the most abundant class of relics, found strewn over the ground in the vicinity of every ruin in this group. It is always in fragments, no whole article of undoubted antiquity having ever been found. This is natural enough, perhaps, since only the surface has been examined, and the roaming tribes of Indians would not be likely to leave anything of use or value; excavation may in the future bring to light whole specimens. But although the absence of whole vessels is not strange, the presence of fragments in so great abundance is very remarkable, since no such tendency to their accumulation is noticed about the inhabited Pueblo towns. It would seem as if the inhabitants, forced to abandon their houses in haste, had deliberately broken all their very large stock of earthen ware, either to prevent its falling into the hands of enemies, or from some superstitiouscustom. The fragments are very like one to another in all parts of the New Mexican region, and in quality and ornamentation nearly identical with the ware still manufactured and used by the Pueblos. It has been noticed, however, that the older pottery is superior generally in material and workmanship to the modern; and also in the southern valleys it is found painted on the inside as well as outside, contrary as is said to the present usage. Very few fragments show anything like glazing. The painted ornamentation consists in most instances of stripes or angular, more rarely of curved, lines, in black, white, and red. Painted representations of any definite objects, animate or inanimate, are of very rare occurrence. Some specimens are, however, not painted, but decorated with considerable skill by means of raised or indented figures. I have given cuts of many specimens, and the thirty-five figures on the next page from different localities will suffice to explain the nature and uniformity of New Mexican pottery.[XI-69]
New Mexican Pottery.
New Mexican Pottery.
6th. "Painted or engraved figures on cliffs, boulders, and the sides of natural caverns." These figures have been mentioned whenever they occurred, and some of them illustrated. There are additional paintings in a rocky pass between Albuquerque and Laguna, mentioned and copied by Möllhausen, and both paintings and sculptures in Texas at Sierra Waco, thirty miles east of El Paso, and at Rocky DellCreek, in lat. 35°, 30´, long. 102°, 30´.[XI-70]In another volume of this work,[XI-71]something has been said of hieroglyphic development, of the different classes of picture-records, and their respective value. The New Mexican rock-inscriptions and paintings, such of them as are not mere idle sketches executed without purpose by the natives to while away the time, belong to the lower classes of representative and symbolic picture-writing,and are utterly inadequate to preserve any definite record far beyond the generation that executed them. Most of them had a meaning to the artist and his tribe at the time they were made; it is safe to suppose that no living being to-day can interpret their meaning, and that they never will be understood. The similar figures painted on the walls of modern estufas,[XI-72]the natives will not, probably cannot, explain. Mr Froebel, in opposition to Mr Bartlett's theory that the figures are meaningless, very justly says: "Many circumstances tend to disprove that these characters were originally nothing but the results of an early attempt at art. In the first place, the similarity of the style, in localities a thousand miles apart, and its extreme peculiarity, preclude every idea of an accidental similarity. One cannot imagine how the same recurring figures should have been used over and over again, unless they had a conventional character, and were intended to express something."[XI-73]
CONCLUSIONS.
I conclude this division of my work by a few general remarks, embodying such conclusions respecting the New Mexican ruins as may be drawn from the ruins themselves, without reference to the mass of speculation, tradition, and so-called history, that has confused the whole subject since first the missionary padres visited and wrote of this region, and sought diligently, and of course successfully, for traditions respecting the Asiatic origin of the Americans, and the southern migration of the Aztecs from the mysterious regions of the Californias to Anáhuac. These conclusions are not lengthy or numerous, and apply with equal force to the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, outside of the geographical limits of this chapter.
1. The ruined structures offer but little internal evidence of their age. There is not even the slightaid of forest growth found in nearly all other parts of America. The different buildings show very different degrees of dilapidation it is true, but to what extent in each case the ravages of time have been assisted by the roaming Apaches and other savages, it is impossible to decide. The Casas Grandes of Chihuahua are much more dilapidated than the similar Casa Grande of the Gila; but, although both are built of mud, a slight difference in the quality of the mud employed, with the more abundant rains of Chihuahua, would account for the better condition of the Gila remains, and prevent us from assigning necessarily a greater antiquity to those of Chihuahua. It is known as a historical fact that the southern buildings were not only in ruins at the coming of the Spaniards in the middle of the sixteenth century, but had been so long in that condition that the native knowledge respecting them had passed into the state of a tradition and a superstition. Certainly not less than a century would suffice for this. Of the northern ruins very many are known to have been inhabited and flourishing towns when the Spaniards came. That any were at that time in ruins is not proven, though possible.
2. The material relics of the New Mexican group bear no resemblance whatever to either Nahua or Maya relics in the south. It has been constantly stated and repeated by most writers, that all American aboriginal monuments, the works of the Mound-Builders of the Mississippi, the ruins of New Mexico and Arizona, the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, the Edificios of Zacatecas, the pyramids of Anáhuac and the central plateaux, Mitla, Palenque, the cities of Yucatan, and finally Copan, all belong evidently to one class and present one type; that all are such as might reasonably be attributed to the same people in different periods of their civilization. It is even customary for travelers and writers to speak without hesitation of Aztec ruins and relics in Arizona, as ifthere were no longer any doubt on the subject. So far as the New Mexican link in the chain is concerned, I most emphatically deny the resemblance, on grounds which the reader of the preceding pages already fully understands. I can hardly conceive of structures reared by human hands differing more essentially than the two classes in question. In the common use of adobes for building-material; in the plain walls rising to a height of several stories; in the terrace structure, absence of doors in the lower story, and the entrance by ladders; in the absence of arched ceilings of overlapping blocks, of all pyramidal structures, of sculptured blocks, of all architectural decorations, of idols, temples, and every trace of buildings evidently designed for religious rites, of burial mounds and human remains; and in the character of the rock-inscriptions and miscellaneous relics, not to go farther into details, the New Mexican monuments present no analogies to any of the southern remains. I do not mean to express a decided opinion that the Aztecs were not, some hundreds or thousands of centuries ago, or even at a somewhat less remote period, identical with the natives of New Mexico, for I have great faith in the power of time and environment to work unlimited changes in any people; I simply claim that it is a manifest absurdity to suppose that the monuments described were the work of the Aztecs during a migration southward, since the eleventh century, or of any people nearly allied in blood and institutions to the Aztecs as they were found in Anáhuac.
3. Not only do the ruins of this group bear no resemblance to those of the south, but they represent in all respects buildings like those still inhabited by the Pueblo tribes and the Moquis, and do not differ more among themselves than do the dwellings of the peoples mentioned. Every one of them may be most reasonably regarded as the work of the direct ancestors of the present inhabitants of the Pueblotowns, who did not differ to any great extent in civilization or institutions from their descendants, though they may very likely have been vastly superior to them in power and wealth. Consequently there is not a single relic in the whole region that requires the agency of any extinct race of people, or any other nations—using the word in a somewhat wider signification than has sometimes been given to it in the preceding volumes—than those now living in the country. Not only do the remains not point in themselves to any extinct race, but if there were any traditional or other evidence indicating the past agency of such a race, it would be impossible to reconcile the traditional with the monumental evidence except by the supposition that the Pueblos are a foreign people who took possession of the abandoned dwellings of another race, whose institutions they imitated to the best of their ability; but I do not know that such a theory has ever been advanced. I am aware that this conclusion is sadly at variance with the newspaper reports in constant circulation, of marvelous cities, the remnants of an advanced but extinct civilization, discovered by some trapper, miner, or exploring expedition. I am also aware of the probability that many ruins in addition to those I have been able to describe, have been found by military officials, government explorers, and private individuals during the past ten years; and I hope that the appearance of this volume may cause the publication of much additional information on the subject,—but that any of the newly discovered monuments differ in type from those previously known, there is much reason to doubt. Very many of the newspaper accounts referred to relate to discoveries made by Lieut. Wheeler's exploring party during the past two or three years. Lieut. Wheeler informs me that the reports, so far as they refer to the remains of an extinct people, are without foundation, and that his observations have led him to a conclusion practicallythe same as my own respecting the builders of the ruined Pueblo towns.
THE ANCIENT PUEBLO TOWNS.
4. It follows that New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Chihuahua were once inhabited by agricultural semi-civilized tribes, not differing more among themselves than do the Pueblo tribes of the present time; the most fertile valleys of the region were cultivated by them, and were dotted by fine town-dwellings of stone and adobe, occupied in common by many families, similar but superior to the present Pueblo towns. At least a century, probably much longer, before the Spaniards made their appearance, the decline of this numerous and powerful people began, and it has continued uninterruptedly down to the present time, until only a mere remnant in the Rio Grande and Moqui towns is left. Before the Spaniards came all the southern towns, on the Gila and its tributaries, had been abandoned; since that time the decline of the northern nations, which the Spaniards found in a tolerably flourishing condition, is a matter of history. The reason of the decline this is hardly the place to consider, but it is doubtless to the inroads of outside warlike and predatory tribes like the Apaches that we must look for the chief cause. It is not impossible that natural changes in the surface of the region, such as the drying-up of springs, streams, or lakes, may have also contributed to the same effect. These changes, however, if such took place, were probably gradual in their operation; for the location of the ruins in what are still in most cases among the most fertile valleys, either in the vicinity of water, or at least of a dried-up stream, and their absence in every instance in the absolutely desert tracts, show pretty conclusively that the towns were not destroyed suddenly by any natural convulsion which radically changed the face of the country. It is not difficult to imagine how the agricultural Pueblo communities, weakened perhaps at first by some international strife which forced them to neglectthe tillage of their land, and hard pressed by more than usually persistent inroads from bands of Apaches who plundered their crops and destroyed their irrigation-works, visited perchance by pestilence, or by earthquakes sent by some irate deity to dry up their springs, were forced year by year to yield their fair fields to the drifting sands, to abandon their southern homes and unite their forces with kindred northern tribes; till at last came the crowning blow of a foreign invasion, which has well nigh extinguished an aboriginal culture more interesting and admirable, if not in all respects more advanced, than any other in North America.
General Character of North-western Remains—No Traces of Extinct or of Civilized Races—Antiquities of California—Stone Implements—Newspaper Reports—Taylor's Work—Colorado Desert—Trail and Rock-Inscriptions—Burial Relics of Southern California—Bones of Giants—Mounds in the Saticoy Valley—New Almaden Mine—Pre-Historic Relics in the Mining Shafts—Stone Implements, Human Bones, and Remains of Extinct Animal Species—Voy's Work—San Joaquin Relics—Merced Mounds—Martinez—Shell Mounds round San Francisco Bay, and their Contents—Relics from a San Francisco Mound—Antiquities of Nevada—Utah—Mounds of Salt Lake Valley—Colorado—Remains at Golden City—Extensive Ruins in Southern Colorado and Utah—Jackson's Expedition—Mancos and St Elmo Cañons—Idaho and Montana—Oregon—Washington—Mounds on Bute Prairie—Yakima Earth-work—British Columbia—Deans' Explorations—Mounds and Earth-works of Vancouver Island—Alaska.
Ruins of the New Mexican Pueblo type, described in the preceding chapter, extend across the boundary lines of New Mexico and Arizona, and have been found by travelers in southern Utah and Colorado; stone and bone implements similar to those used by the natives when the first Europeans came and since that time, are frequently picked up on the surface or taken from aboriginal graves in most parts of the whole northern region; a few scattered rock-inscriptions are reported in several of the states; burialmounds and other small earth-heaps of unknown use are seen in many localities; shell mounds, some of them of great size, occur at various points in the coast region, as about San Francisco Bay and on Vancouver Island, and they probably might be found along nearly the whole coast line; and the mining shafts of California have brought to light human remains, implements wrought by human hands, and bones of extinct animals, at great depths below the surface, evidently of great age. With the preceding paragraph and a short account of the ruins of Colorado, I might consistently dispose of the antiquities of the Northwest.
There has not been found and reported on good authority a single monument or relic which is sufficient to prove that the country was ever inhabited by any people whose claims to be regarded as civilized were superior to those of the tribes found by Europeans within its limits. It is true that some implements may not exactly agree with those of the tribes now occupying the same particular locality, and some graves indicate slight differences in the manner of burial, but this could hardly be otherwise in a country inhabited by so many nations whose boundaries were constantly changing. Yet I have often heard the Aztec relics of California and Oregon very confidently spoken of. It is a remarkable fact that to most men who find a piece of stone bearing marks of having been formed by human hands, the very first idea suggested is that it represents an extinct race, while the last conclusion arrived at is that the relic may be the work of a tribe still living in the vicinity where it was found.
CALIFORNIAN RELICS.
California has within her limits large quantities of native utensils and many burial deposits, some of which doubtless date back to the time when no European had yet set foot in the country. A complete description of such relics, illustrated with cuts oftypical specimens from different sections of the state, would be of great value in connection with the account of the Californian tribes given in a preceding volume; but unfortunately the material for such description and cuts are utterly wanting, and will not be supplied for many years. Officers and assistants connected with the U. S. Coast Survey and other government exploring expeditions, are constantly, though slowly, gathering relics for the national collection, and a few individuals acting in an unofficial capacity have examined certain localities and described the aboriginal implements found therein through trustworthy mediums. But most of the discoveries in this direction are recorded only in newspaper accounts, which, in a large majority of cases, offer no guarantee of their authenticity or accuracy. Many are self-evident hoaxes; many others are doubtless as reliable as if published in the narrative of the most trust-worthy explorer or in the transactions of any learned society; but to decide upon the relative merits of the great bulk of these accounts is altogether impossible, to say nothing of the absence of drawings, which, after all, are the only satisfactory description of miscellaneous relics. I therefore deem it not advisable to fill the pages of a long chapter with a compilation of the almost innumerable newspaper items in my possession, useless for the most part to antiquarians, and comparatively without interest to the general reader. Dr Alex. S. Taylor has already made quite a complete compilation of the earlier accounts in Californian newspapers, which he published in theCalifornia Farmerin 1860-3. Without, as a rule, going into details, I shall present a brief résumé of what has been written about Californian relics of aboriginal times, giving in full only a few reports of undoubted authenticity.[XII-1]
Brasseur de Bourbourg tells us that in the distant north "was found anciently a city named Tula, the ruins of which are thought to have been found in the valley, still so little explored, of Tulares. The Americans have announced in their newspapers the discovery of these Californian ruins, but can one credit the reports?" Brasseur possibly alludes in the paragraph quoted to certain reports circulated about 1853, which announced the discovery, somewhere in the desert of the Colorado on the California side, of a ruined bridge of stone, where no river had run for ages, together with an immense pyramid, and other grand remains. These reports seem to have originated in the correspondence of a Placerville newspaper; but whether they were manufactured in the office of the paper, or were actually sent in by some roaming prospector of an inventive turn of mind, does not appear.[XII-2]
COLORADO DESERT.
Mr Blake found in the Colorado desert "several long, path-like discolorations of the surface, extending for miles in nearly straight lines, which were Indian trails. The only change which was produced appeared to be the removal or dimming of the polish on the pebbles. There was no break in the hard surface, and no dust. That the distinctness of the trail was made by the removing of the polish only, became evident from the fact that figures and Indian hieroglyphics were traced, or imprinted, on the surface adjoining the path, apparently by pounding or bruising the surface layer of the pebbles. These trails seemed very old, and may have endured for many generations."[XII-3]A writer in theBulletinmentions a road which extends from the mouth of the Coahuila Valley of San Gorgonio Pass, beginning at Noble'sranch, eastwardly across the desert in almost a straight line, to the mouth of the Colorado Cañon. The earth is worn deep, and along its course the surface is strewn with broken pottery. In many of the soft rocks the imprints of the feet of men and animals are still plainly visible. The road is not much over a foot wide, and from it branch off side paths leading to springs or other sources of water.[XII-4]The only other remains in the desert of which I find any record are some rock-inscriptions at Pah Ute Creek, located about thirty miles west from the Mojave villages. Mr Whipple gives a drawing of the inscriptions, which bear a strong resemblance in their general character, as might be expected, to those which have been found in so many localities in the New Mexican region.[XII-5]
The vertical face of a granite cliff at San Francisquito Pass, near a spring, was covered with carved characters, probably similar to those last described. One of the characters resembled a long chain, with a ball at one end, surrounded by rays like those employed in our representations of the sun; another was like in form to an anchor. Well-worn ancient foot-paths, old reservoirs, and other undescribed relics are reported in the vicinity of Owen's lake and river.[XII-6]Painted figures in blue, red, and white, are reported, together with some Spanish inscriptions of a date preceding 1820, in Painted Rock Valley, four days' journey east by south from Tejon Pass, also in the cañada of the San Juan arroyo, which empties into the Salinas River near the mission of San Miguel. In the former case the figures are painted on a blue grayish rock, about twenty feet square and hollowed out in bowl shape.[XII-7]
BURIAL RELICS IN THE SOUTH.
Relics from Southern California.
Relics from Southern California.
Mr Paul Schumacher, engaged in the service of the United States Coast Survey, has taken great interest in Californian aboriginal relics, which he has collected for the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. In the vicinity of San Luis Obispo, between points Sal and San Luis, he examined during the past year four graves or burial deposits, known asnipomo,walckhe,kesmali,temeteti. These graves furnished some three hundred human skeletons, or rather about that number were examined, and also quite a large number of domestic utensils, weapons, and ornaments. Among these relics great uniformity is observed, indicating that all the graves belonged to the same tribe of natives. Nine specimens are shown in the cut on the opposite page, made from Mr Schumacher's drawings. Fig. 1, 2, and 9, represent large cooking-pots, globular or pear-shaped, and hollowed out of magnesian mica. The circular opening of fig. 9, having a small and narrow rim, measures only five inches in diameter, while the greatest diameter of the pot is eighteen inches. Near the edge of the opening this vessel is only a quarter of an inch thick, but the thickness increases regularly towards the bottom, where it is an inch and a quarter. Sandstone mortars of different dimensions, but of similar forms, were found in great abundance with the other utensils, one of the largest of which is shown in fig. 8. This is sixteen inches in diameter and thirteen in height. The smallest are only aninch and a half high, and three inches in diameter. The pestles are of the same material, and their form is shown in fig. 3. There was moreover, quite an assortment of what seem to be cups, measuring from one and a quarter to six inches in diameter, and neatly worked out of serpentine, the surface of which was brightly polished. Specimens are shown in fig. 5 and 7. Another similar one, the smallest found, was enclosed in three shells, in a very curious manner, as shown in fig. 6. In this enclosed cup was a quantity of what is described as paint; and traces of the same material were found in all the cups, indicating that they were not used to contain food. Fig. 4 represents a plate which is presumably of stone, although the cut would seem to indicate a shell. These domestic implements deposited by the aborigines with their dead were rarely broken, and when they were so, the breakage was caused in every instance by the pressure of the soil or other superimposed objects. One peculiar circumstance in connection with these relics was that some broken mortars and pestles were repaired by the use of asphaltum as a cement. All the relics collected by Mr Schumacher, as well as those which I have copied, are preserved in the National Museum at Washington.[XII-8]The same explorer is now engaged in making an examination of the islands of the Santa Barbara Channel, where it is not improbable that many interesting relics may be discovered. Mr Taylor heard from a resident of San Buenaventura that "in a recent stay on Santa Rosa Island, in 1861, he often met with the entire skeletons of Indians in the caves. The signs of their rancherías were very frequent, and the remains of metates, mortars, earthen pots, and other utensils very common. The metates were of a dark stone, and made somewhat after the pattern of the Mexican. Extensive caves were oftenmet with which seemed to serve as burial places of the Indians, as entire skeletons and numerous skulls were plentifully scattered about in their recesses." Some very wonderful skulls are also reported as having been found on the islands, furnished with double teeth all the way round the jaw.[XII-9]
MISCELLANEOUS REMAINS.
Miscellaneous relics reported on authority varying from indifferent to bad at different points in the southern part of the state, are as follows: In 1819 an old lady saw a gigantic skeleton dug up by soldiers at Purísima on the Lompock rancho. The natives deemed it a god, and it was re-buried by direction of the padre. Taheechaypah pass and the mission of San Buenaventura are other localities where skeletons of extraordinary size have been found. The old natives at San Luis Rey have seen in the mountain passes tracks of men and animals in solid rock. These tracks were made, those of the men at least, by their fathers fleeing from some convulsion of nature which occurred not many generations back. Nine miles north of Santa Barbara on the Dos Pueblos rancho, some small mounds only two or three feet high have been seen on the point of the mesa overlooking the sea. Mr Carvalho claims to have dug from a small mound near Los Angeles the bones of a mastodon, including four perfect teeth, one of which weighed six pounds. Miss Saxon speaks of high mounds in the vicinity of rivers, said to have been once the site of villages so located for protection against floods.[XII-10]
In the plain at the mouth of the Saticoy River, twelve miles below San Buenaventura, and five or six miles from the sea, are reported two mounds, regular, rounded, and bare of trees. One of them is over a mile long and two hundred feet high, and the other about half as large. If the report of their existenceis correct, there seems to be no evidence that they are of artificial formation, except their isolated position on the plain, and a native tradition that they are burial-places. One writer suggests that they are the graves of a people, or of their kings, whose cities are buried beneath the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. The site of the cities presents some obstacles to exploration, and the details of their construction are not fully known. Twenty miles farther up the Saticoy is a group of small mounds, ten or twelve in number and five or six feet high. They "seem to have been water-worn or worked out by running water all around the mounds so as to isolate each one." Near these mounds, on the Cayetano rancho, is a field of some five hundred acres, divided by parallel ridges of earth, and having distinct traces of irrigating ditches, supplied by a canal which extends two or three miles up the Sespe arroyo. It is said that the present inhabitants of this region, both native and Spanish, have no knowledge of the origin of these agricultural works.[XII-11]
It is said that the New Almaden quicksilver mines were worked by the natives for the purpose of obtaining vermilion, long before the coming of the Spaniards. The excavation made by the aboriginal miners was long supposed to be a natural cavern, extending about one hundred feet horizontally into the hill, until some skeletons, rude mining tools, and other relics of human presence revealed the secret.[XII-12]
In various localities about Monterey, in addition to the usual mortars and arrow-heads, holes in the living rock, used probably as mortars for pounding acorns and seeds, are reported by Taylor; and the Santa Cruz 'skull cave' is spoken of as 'noted throughoutthe country' for having furnished bones now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.[XII-13]
REMAINS FROM THE MINES.
One of the most interesting classes of Californian antiquities is that which includes aboriginal remains discovered in the mining counties, at considerable depths below the surface of the ground. The stone implements thus found are not in themselves particularly interesting, or different from those which have been found under other circumstances; nor do they include any specimens which indicate the former existence of any race more advanced than that found in the country by Europeans. But the chief importance of these antiquities consists in the great depth at which some of them have been found, and in the fact that they have been found in connection with the fossil bones of animals belonging to species now no longer existing in the country. The existence of the work of human hands buried hundreds of feet beneath the many successive layers of different rocks and earths, might not necessarily imply a greater age than one dating a few centuries before the coming of the Spaniards; although few would be willing to admit, probably, that natural convulsions so extensive have taken place at so recent an epoch. But when the work of human hands is shown to have been discovered in connection with the bones of mastodons, elephants, horses, camels, and other animals long since extinct, and that they have been so found there seems to be sufficient proof, it is hardly possible with consistency to deny that these implements date from a remote antiquity. Newspaper items describing relics of this class are almost numberless; a few of the specimens have fallen into the hands of scientific men, who have carefully examined and described them; but a great majority, even of such implements as have not been completely overlooked by the miner who dug orwashed them from their deep resting-places, have been lost after exciting a momentary curiosity, and their important testimony lost to science. Mr C. D. Voy of Oakland has shown much energy and interest in the examination of stone implements and fossils from the mines. The relics themselves have of course been found in almost every instance by miners in their search for gold; but Mr Voy has personally visited most of the localities where such discoveries were reported, and seems to have taken all possible pains to verify the authenticity of the discoveries, having in many cases obtained sworn statements from the parties who made them. An unpublished manuscript written by this gentleman is entitledRelics of the Stone Age in California, and is illustrated with many photographs of specimens from his own and other collections. This work, kindly furnished me by Mr Voy, is probably the most complete extant on the subject, and from it I take the following descriptions. The author proceeds by counties, first describing the geology of each county, and then the relics of whose existence he has been able to learn, and the localities where they were found. Except a brief statement in a few cases of the depth at which stone remains were found, and of the strata that covered them, I shall not touch upon the geologic formation of the mining region. Nor does a particular or scientific description of the fossil remains come within the scope of my work. A brief account of the stone implements and the positions in which they have been discovered will suffice.