Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/733

Rh knife in the soft sand soon resulted in the uncovering of three musical instruments, or flutes, showing that evidently the musician of the tribe had been discovered. They were the leg bones of the deer, found on the mainland forty miles away, and were evidently highly treasured by the owner, as they were ornamented with pearly iridescent plates cut from the haliotis. The flutes, which are now in Mr. Plumb's collection at Islip, Long Island, were about eight inches in length, perforated with four or five finger holes, while the largest end was covered with asphaltum, into which was set the square or oblong piece of pearl, evidently selected for its beauty and luster.

These quaint instruments had been placed at the feet of the body evidently, as they were just on a level with it. It is not impossible that some stone vessels had been buried over the skeleton, as numbers of broken fragments were found here. Near by a large shell was discovered at the surface filled with shell beads, and a short distance away a skeleton partly burned, the bones mixed up among charred wood, fish bones, etc. Beneath it were several discoidal stones, and a curious object resembling a bell-clapper, probably a polishing implement of some kind.

The entire region was undoubtedly either a vast burying ground or had been a village site covered in the intervening years by the drifting sand that was ever creeping up the canons.

As to the age of these remains, no estimate could be made, but everything pointed to an early period in the history of the island. San Clemente is subjected to winds, has a poor water supply, and does not present the attractive features found at Santa Catalina, now a famous watering place. The latter island evidently had a larger population. During the past ten years the writer has located at least twenty ancient town sites or camps on Santa Catalina, and found stone implements on many of them, ranging from mortars and pestles to discoidal stones, and various objects of stone, wood, shell, and bone. One location is of especial interest, being an ancient olla manufactory, where the natives from time immemorial made soapstone vessels and objects of various kinds. Here are the old olla marks, showing where the mortars had been broken off; and