Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-10-01
sAusALlTo.s GRAVES.
Remains of q Lost Tribe Found In Cali
fornla Hills.

Remains of Lost Tribe Found In Cali
fornia Hills.
There is in Sausalito an old Indian
burial mound, and every once in awhile
that grass-grown tumulus gives up
come of its forgotten dead, says tho
San Francisco Call. 1t is not pleasant
even in Sausalito, where peace AMI
pleasure perches swallow-like on the
hillside, to have rude and savage past
sliding down from it's sepulchral heap
into the busy thoroughfares of the liv-
ing present.
The place where the former Sausali,
tans laid themselves away to sleep in
In the northern part of the town. A
street has been cut through the eastern
side OF the mound, and many skeletons
have been unearthed. Little except the
skulls have been found in state Of
preservation, the rest Of these rude resi-
denters having passed back to the dust
of their common grave.
In the perpendicular bank made by
the pick and shovel Of the worlemen
was discovered the place where a body
had crumbled and disappeared. Like
the baker of Pompeii lying in volcanic
ashes, this aborigine had left his mold
when he had resolved Lack to earth
again.
In this bank may be seen the sue
ceeding starta of shells marking the
food periods in the life of the old
rancheria. 1t is the geological commits
ssry history of the tribe. The Indians
evidently had lived on the big mound,
and the shells and animal bones of
their long-ago feasts had been dropped
underfoot. They buried their dead
there too, underfoot, and as the refuse
accumulations of generations lifted the
living the departed went lower. The
deposits of the centuries widened the
space between the quick and the dead
In the old earthly records can be seen
strata of clam shells, demonstrating
that this peculiar bivalve flourished
plentifully on the bay shore hard by.
The projecting of an ordinary magma
ton backward through the years will
bring to view the early man of Sausa-
Ito with flint spade grubbing in the
prehistoric mud for the ingredients Of
his chowder pot.
Then came period when another
bill of fare prevailed after the clam
bake day had darkened. A mussel
stratum shows itself, and the soft shells
are thick in the era marked by the
abundance of that food. 1t was the
proverbial feast before the famine that
evidently came in the next generation,
for the succeeding deposit shows earth
without any evidences Of the tribal
menu. Possibly the vegetable and fruit
fad struck the Indians, and the perish
able nature of their kitchen refuse pre-
cluded the leaving of dietary record.
Or more likely the root and berry crop
among the hills failed also, as a num-
her of skeletons found in this stratum
would leave the archaeologistt to believe
that the famine was then among the
mound people. -.
The following era was better for the
tribe, for the CLANS came back. They
were large, firm, fat fellows, with seal
loped shells, so hard that they never
crumbled under the succeeding periods
that pressed down on them. There are
only few skeletons in this stratum,
and the scientist reading the unerling
pages of the time may conclude that
the deceased died from overeating.
Then came geological era when the
fragments of animal bones appear
when the mammalia of the Coast Range
came down to the mound and graced
| the festive board. In the next period
| Ieither shells, bones nor human re-
| mains appear. Probably plenty smiled
among the berry bushes on the rugged
| sides of Tamalpais or the cculent grass
hopper swarmed bounteously in the
wild oats during those summers Of the
lnortars and pestles found here is evil
dence that the acorn output was mamma
| in the wilderness to the tribe.
However, the ancient people of Sau
salito passed down into their mounds
and the grass of to-day grows rankly
over their dead periods. A grove of
buckeye and pepperwood trees send
their roots down among the bones,
which the street contractor disturbs
with his pick and shovel. The other day
newspaper man, standing in sad con-
temptation over the tumulus of lost
| race, saw q modern Sausalitan trundle
wheelbarrow up 10 the hank and begin
to shovel the shells and bones into the
affair.
ut makes good chicken feed" he ex-
planned. 'The stuff makes the hens lay
better"
To what base uses we may all return.
st. Louis Republic.
The Princes Cast-On Clothing.