Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 10.djvu/370

356 Near the houses, where in all probability the cooking débris had first been deposited, it is now and then found in heaps almost destitute of sand; but, no doubt, after a large quantity had thus been accumulated, it was spread over the ground of the town, evened, and smoothed by layers of sand. The proportion of sand mixed with the cooking débris is about one-half the weight of the whole mass. The size of a town-site varies from about 100 metres in length and width, like the one illustrated in the figure, to 1,200 metres, or three-quarters of a mile, in length, and from 100 to 300 metres in width, the extent of Os-bi, a ranchería in Santa Barbara County, about five miles south of Point Sal, which is the largest shell-mound derived from permanent habitation thus far explored on this coast.

The same features of an aboriginal settlement we observe in Oregon, 1,000 miles to the north. If we take, for instance, the ruined settlement of the Chetl-e-shin, situated on the commanding elevation of the north bank, and near the mouth of Pistol River: in front the wide ocean expands, with a number of large outlying rocks; Pistol River washes the base of the bluff upon which the station is situated; its waters are stocked with trout, and, in certain seasons, abundantly with salmon; to the left, or eastward, a mountain-brook empties into the river at the foot of the ranchería, and a spring issues between the upper and lower town-sites; back of the coast the country extends in a gradual rise toward a steep and heavily-timbered ridge, beyond which it becomes almost impenetrable, owing to thick forests and their undergrowth, and vines, the safe home of elk and bear. The rocky ground upon which the town was located is covered with a deposit of sand, of Which the neighboring beach offers an abundance, and kjökken möddings of great age in its lower layers, with that peculiar mouldy, ash-like appearance, sprinkled with particles of decayed shells, so characteristic of an aboriginal settlement.

It is evident that such a ground, needing artificial foundation for the establishment of a town, was not suitable either for a burying-ground site; we must, therefore, look for the graves of these people within the artificial mounds. There is an exception to this when the ground is naturally sandy, or soft; then we must look for the graves within an easy distance, say about 150 metres, in some prominent place and in sight of the ranchería. The graves consist of a pit varying between two and fifteen metres square, and not over two metres in depth, partitioned into smaller spaces by whales' bones and slabs of stone, or by wood. On the islands the gigantic bones of the whale are almost exclusively used; while, on the neighboring mainland, limestone, which splits board-like into slabs, and also whales' bones, and pine and red-wood, are used. Graves of this description have been found in California south of San Francisco, while in Oregon the mode of burial is different, the interment being either made in detached graves, or in houses previously demolished by fire.