USA > California > Monterey County > History of Monterey County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, and mines : with biiographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 19
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Neither is a tropical climate the best, as it fosters indo- lence by an excess of heat, and need of an occasional cold and stimulating air. The tropical climates in addition are usually prolific in diseases, and the atmosphere is rare and humid, pro- ducing and favoring debility.
One would therefore prefer a climate medium in these respects. It should be warm enough and only enough to require but little confinement in doors. There should be range enough in temperature to give variety, and not enough to shock the human system by sudden changes of heat or cold, humidity or dryness.
A STEADY TEMPERATURE.
Out-door life here is practicable at all seasons and almost every day in the year. Oppressive heat is seldom felt, and nothing colder than a slight frost during the coldest mornings of winter. During all the summer months, from April to November, there is steady temperature.
To a person who has spent all his life in one place, it is diffi- cult to convey a clear idea of the differences of climate, and of the advantages of a climate like that of California. One accustomed only to the clouds and showers of Ireland, or to the hot summers and severe winters of New York, has no proper conception of the influence of the clear sky and dry atmosphere of the San Joaquin valley, or the even temperature of San Francisco upon the general comfort. The differences of eleva- tion and latitude give, within a comparatively short distance, all varieties of climate, from sub-tropical to polar.
There are within the boundaries of our State many different climates. At San Francisco, in summer, it is absolutely cold, whilst within three hours' travel by rail, in the interior, towards the San Joaquin, you reach a region where it is, in the daytime, absolutely hot.
Snow is very rare on the coast and in the valleys, and never remains on the ground in the valleys, except in the extreme northern part of the State. The Sierra Nevada mountains above an elevation of 8,000 or 9,000 fcet, are generally covered with snow the entire year, and in many mining towns there are several months when snow remains on the ground. Hail rarely occurs in California.
A marked phenomenon of the climate is the comparative absence of thunder and lightning, which rarely occurs, except in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where thunder-storins are often as severe as in the Atlantic States. A residence of fifteen years has not witnessed thunder loud enough to disturb one from a noon-day nap. The coast and valleys of California are remarkably and wonderfully free from all violent storms of any nature which occur so frequently east of the Rocky Mountains. Wind, hail and thunder-storms, so frequent in the Atlantic States, never occur here. Sand-storms sometimes occur in the southern part of the interior basin, hut of less violence than in Colorado.
THE THERMAL BELT.
There is a warm strata of air in the hills, a few hundred feet above the valleys. This semi-tropical belt varies; in some locations it is very marked, and in others it is much less so. At night, during the frosty seasons, the cold air settles in the valleys and the warm air rises. At daylight a severe frost may be seen in the valleys, heaviest along the water courses, while in the warm belt, a few hundred feet above-in some cases not more than sixty-the most delicate flowers and shrubs are untouched. The soil on the hills has often great depth, and is admirably adapted to fruit culture. Like the valleys, the lands are cov- ered only by scattered groves of trees, little of it too steep for easy cultivation. It is exactly suited for semi-tropical fruit culture; here oranges, lemons, limes, English walnuts, almonds and pomegranates grow well, and yield a certain crop. There are thousands of acres of this kind of land in the foot-hill valleys unoccupied.
The temperature of some of the leading places on this coast, will be found in the following :-
TEMPERATURE TABLE
PLACES.
sca-in feet.
Height above the
ture for the year
Mean of Tempera-
ture for the cold-
Mean of Tempera-
46.21;28-December,
1849
Anburn
1363
60.71
45.88 27-January,
1871
Colfax.
2421
60.05
45.49:26-January,
1874
Marysville
67
63.62
48.70,27-December,
1876
Chico
193
62.46
45.1923-December,
1872
Tehama
222
65.20
47.0123-December, 1871
Red Bluff.
307
66.22
48.2926-December,
1873
Redding ..
558
64.14
46.7227-January,
1876
Merced
171
63.16
48.1428-January,
1876
Modesto.
91
63.68
47.6922-December. 1874
Stockton
61.99
47.43 21-December, 1872
San Diego
150
62.49
53.3026-December, 1854
Los Angeles
457
67.69
58.95 39-December,
1876
Soledad.
182
59.08
45.2324-January.
1877
Salinas
57.95
48.25,24-December,
1874
Holllister
284
61.46 46.5327-December, 1874
est ichth,
Lowest Temperature shown by thermometer in any year.
Sacramento.
30
60.481
95
MONTEREY AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTY.
An Agricultural County.
MONTEREY is in no sense a mining county but is elassed with the agricultural. Gold has however been found at various places in the Santa Lucia range, although nowhere in large quantities. Places are or were worked near San Antonio Mission. Small quantities of silver ore have been found at Arroyo Seco, causing at one time much excitement, and the expenditure of many thousands of dollars without getting any return.
There are no mines of auy value in the Coast Range. Cin- nabar is the ore most likely to be found in sufficient deposits to become valuable. Small quantities of galena, found on the Alisal Raneh a few miles north-east of Monterey, gave rise to stories of silver miues of great richness, but none of value were ever worked. Deposits of asphaltum, on or near the coast, are well known. The bituminous slate, near San Antonio Mission, is generally of a eream color, and sometimes almost white. It is very fine grained, and not liiglily bituminous. In one place tbe flow has covered the road with hardened asphaltum.
COAL AND OTHER MINERALS.
Coal has been discovered in both the great mountain ranges, but those of the most supposed valne were in the Santa Lucia range near Monterey. One mine was called the " Monterey," with B. V. Sargent as President at oue time; another the " Mal Paso," J. W. Miller, President. Although considerable money has been spent in developing these coal veins, they do not, as yet, seem to have been profitable to the parties operat- ing them, and at present uo work is being done.
Quarries of stone have been opened at various points. The Mission Carmelo was built of the bituminous slate near Mont- erey. The old quarries can be found from which the stone was taken. The roek is soft and easily cut with an ax, yet sufficiently durable, in this elimate, to be used for building pur- poses. Walls laid seventy-five years ago still show the marks of tools used in dressing the stone. The mission walls determine how well it stands exposure. Both sandstone and limestone, impregnated with bitumin, oceur in the State. The sandstone is in a thiek strata, and we believe was used, at an early day, for building purposes in San Francisco.
The granite is coarse grained, and contains crystals of feldspar, often two inehes in length and sometimes four. This roek has been quarried at Point Pinos and Point Lobos. Where the granite is free from sulphate of iron, it is of excellent qual- ity, and dresses into a handsome surface. A sand of the most dazzling whiteness, apparently formed by the action of the surf on the granite, has accumulated in places along the beach, and is used for the manufacture of glass.
Limestone abounds in the mountains baek of Natividad, and in the vicinity of the Gabilan range. It ought to be a thriving industry. Only a limited amount is produced at present.
In the hills and mountains are deposited ledges or beds of fossil or petrified shells, including many distinet speeies of oysters, elams, etc., that onee inhabited the ocean. In one of these beds, fifteen or twenty fect thick, was found an oyster shell which weighed fourteen and a half pounds, and was on exhibition at Monterey for a while.
OLD MINING TOWN OF ROOTVILLE.
By far the largest mining developments were in progress several years ago, some six miles north-east of Soledad, and thirty-six miles east of Salinas, at a town called Rootville. At one time the town was in quite a prosperous condition, but it would be hard work to find it now.
Mr. Samuel Brannan and a Mr. H. Higgins, are said to have spent a large amount of money here, inining for gold. 'The preeious metal was found, but not in paying quantities; silver was the artiele most sought after, and quite extensive mining operations were conducted at one time. The first discovery was about 1870, by a Mr. Root, and hence the name of the locality. This mine was called the "Robert Emmett," and it was said "the ledge was well defined and could be traced for miles." A shaft was sunk, and other operations earried on.
The " Comet " was considered a still better ledge, and the " Bainbridge" outrivaled them all in prospective richness. Some of the tunnels run into the hills for a distance of three hundred feet.
A REMARKABLE CANYON.
Five miles north of this old mining ground is a singular valley, probably half a mile in length, and exceedingly uarrow. Towering upon either hand, for a height of two thousand feet, are perpendicular walls of rock. At the extremity opposite the place of entrance is an enormous egg-shaped boulder, just filling the interstiee between the two walls, and fitting so snugly as to effectnally bar all entranee or exit. Beneath the stone is a space just sufficient to admit the passage of a mount- ain stream. A short distance below this is a small valley completely rock-bound. if we except a passageway six feet in width at either extremity. It is a matter of absolute impossi- bility to effeet either entrance or exit from this valley in any other way than by one of these passes. This is said to have been a favorite strong-hold of Joaquin Murieta. Vasquez is also said to have sought its retirement, when elosely pur- sued, and to have enjoyed many days of quiet in its secure retreat.
96
THE INDIANS ABOUT MONTEREY BAY.
Indians about Monterey.
IT is impossible to give muchi information in regard to the Indians of Monterey and vicinity, except such accounts as are given of them by the early missionaries. These, as to their habits and characteristics, are very meager and unsatisfactory. We have in the preceding pages of this work given some accounts of them in connection with the missions.
Their numbers were never exactly known, their habits being migratory, and their camps seldom permanent for any great length of time. It is not probable that the Indians knew their own number, or that they cared to krow, and their rapid dis- appearance has left very few of whom even to make inquiry, and perhaps none who could give any definite information. We are, therefore, necessarily left to the alternative of esti- mating their numbers from the statements of early settlers, and others who visited California at an early day.
FIRST ACCOUNTS OF THEIR NUMBER.
Junipero Serra, under date of July 3, 1769, says :--
"We have seen Indians in immense numbers, and all those on this coast of the Pacific contrive to make a good subsistence on various seeds, and by fishing. The latter they carry on by means of rafts or canoes, made of tule (bulrushes), with which they go a great way to sea. They are very civil. All the males, old and young, go naked; the women, however, and the female children, are decently covered from their breasts down- wards. We found on our journey, as well as the place where we stopped, that they treated us with as much confidence and good-will as if they had known us all our lives. But when we offered them any of our victuals, they always refused them. All they cared for was cloth, and only for something of this sort would they exchange their fish, or whatever else they had. During the whole march we found hares, rabbits, some deer, and a multitude of berendos, a kind of wild goat."
RELICS OF MONTEREY INDIANS.
These deposits of shells and bones are the kitchen refuse of the earlier inhabitants of the coast regions where they are now found, and, thongh differing from each other in their respective species of shells and bones of vertebrates-according to the localities and the ages to which they belong-they have yet, together with the stone implements found in them, a remark- able similarity in all parts of the North American Pacific coast.
Says Paul Schumacher: In the extensive downs near the mouth of the stream, Rio de la Santa Maria, which is a few miles north of Point Sur on the coast of Monterey, are numer-
ous remains of Indian camps; on examining this class of heaps by a vertical section we find layers of sand recurring at short intervals, which seem to prove that they were visited at fixed scasons.
In the south-castern part of the county are unmistakable evidences of its having been densely populated by Indians; tbere are ledges of limestone covered with rude hieroglyphics, imita- tions of birds, beasts and hideous monsters.
There are, also, hundreds of mortars in the rocks, in which the patient, servile squaw has spent days, weeks, and years of her life operating as a mill in grinding the acorn for making a kind of bread. Large quantities of acorns were stored in baskets made of willow, and placed in trees fifteen to twenty fect from the ground, and secured from rain, and kept, for win- ter use.
THE INDIANS OF POINT SAL.
On the extremity of Point Sul, the northern projection of which is covered by large sand-drifts, we find down to the very. brink of the stcep and rocky shore, extensive shell deposits, whieb, with few exceptions, consist of the Mytilus California- nus and of bones, flint chips being also found, though very sparsely, in comparison with the mass of other remains. The sea having washed out the base of this declivity, and the top soil having, as a consequence, slid down, we can see on the edge of the cliff shell-layers amounting in all to a thickness of four or five feet; that part closest to the sub-lying rock appearing dark and ash-like, while the deposit becomes better preserved as the surface is neared. At other places, for exam- ple, on the extreme outer spur of this Point Sal, the shell-remains have so conglomerated and run together with extreme anti- quity as to overhang and beetle over the rocks for quite a distance.
Traces of the regular settlements of the ancient aborigines are found near the southern Point Sal, at a place where it turns castward at an angle of something less than ninety degrees behind the first small hill of the steep ridge which trends casterly into the country, and which, up to this spot is, on its, northern slope, covered with drift-sand and partially grown over with stunted herbage. Further traces of a like kind are to be seen on the high bluff between north and south Point Sal. Here the shells are piled up in shapeless, irregular heaps, as they are met in all localities on the coast where there were the fixed dwelling-places of people whose principal food . consisted of fresh shell-fish; for, in the neighborhood of these permanent homes the shell-remains were always put away in fixed places, while in the temporary camps they were care- lessly distributed over the whole surface of the ground. At this place, there are to be found tons of flint-chips, scattered about in all dircetions, as also knives, arrow-heads and spear- heads in large quantities.
· RESIDENCE OF HENRY WATSON, PAICINES, SAN BENITO CO. CAL.
華南
الساعه
97
REMAINS OF INDIAN VILLAGES AND TOOMBS.
INDIAN VILLAGE OF KESMALI.
Further search at last revealed in the thick chaparral a few seattered sandstone slabs, such as in that region were used for liniug graves. Digging near these spots were found the graves of this settlement -- a settlement that the old Spanisli residents ealled Kesmali. " Here," says the explorer, " I brought to light about one hundred and fifty skeletons, and various kinds of implements. The graves were construeted in the fol- lowing manner: A large hole was made in the sandy soil to a depth of about five feet, then a fire was lit in it until a hard briek-like erust was burned to a depth of four or five inches into the surrounding earth. The whole excavation was then partitioned off into smaller spaces by sandstone slabs, about one and a half inches thick, one foot broad, and three feet long, in which smaller partitions the skeletons were. One of these slabs generally lay horizontally over the head of the corpse as a kind of protecting roof for the skull, just as I had found them at Checto river, although in the latter instance the graves were lined with split redwood boardls instead of stones. Such eare- ful burial is not, however. always met with, and must evidently be taken as a sign of the respectability or the wealth of the deceased; the more so, as in such graves I found usually many utensils, somthing not the case with the more carelessly formed tombs, which were only very slightly lined, and in which the heads of the dead were covered with a piece of rough stone or half a mortar. The slabs above mentioned were generally painted, and a piece which I carried off with me was divided lengthwise by a single straight, dark line, from which radiated on either side, at an angle of about sixty degrees, thirty-two other parallel red lines, sixteen on each side, like the bones of a fish from the vertebra. In most cases the inner side of the slab was painted a simple red.
REMAINS OF INDIAN TOOMBS.
" In the graves the skeletons lay on their backs with the knees drawn up, and the arms, in most cases, stretched out. No definite direction was observed in the placing of the bodies, which frequently lay in great disorder, the saving of room having been apparently the prime consideration. Some skeletons, for example, were laying opposite to eaeli other, foot to foot, while adjoining ones again were laid erosswise. The female skele- tons had, instead of the protecting head-slab, a stone mortar placed on its edge so as to admit the skull, or a stone pot, which latter, if too narrow in the neek to admit the skull, was simply buried underneath it. Cups and oruaments, both in the case of men and women, were principally about the liead, while shell- beads were found in the mouth, the eye-sockets, and in the cavity of the brain, which latter was almost always filled with sand pressed in through the forumen magnum. The skeletons were in some cases packed in quite elosely, one over another,
so that the uppermost were only about three feet below the surface of the ground. The stain of poverty was very evident on these, except, perhaps, where they were females, as they were in the majority of cases.
"I cannot accept the hypothesis that these were the slaves of some rich man, and buried with their master; for the lower skeletons were generally found to have been disturbed in a very singular manner, such as could only have been occasioned by a re-opening of the grave after decomposition had set in. I found, for example, a lower jaw lying near its right place, but upside down, so that both the upper and lower teeth pointed downward; in another case, the thigh-bones lay the wrong way, the knee-pans being turned toward the basiu ; and, in other instances, the bones were totally separated and mixed np-all going to show that the graves had been repeatedly opened for the burial of bodies at different times. Once I even found, upon piereing the bottom crust of one sepuleher, another lying deeper, which perhaps had been forgotten, as the bones therein were somewhat damaged by fire. Plenty of charcoal is found in these tombs, usually of redwood, rarely of pine; and I could not determine any third variety. Sometimes there were also discovered the remains of posts from three to six inehes in diameter, and of split boards about two inches in thickness. These were probably the remains of the burned dwell- ings of the deceased, placed in his grave with all his other property.
INDIAN VILLAGE OF TEMETETI.
" I examined other graves, resembling those describeil of Point Sal. These others are known by the name of Temeteti. They lie about fourteen miles north of the Point Sal graves, and are situated on the right bank of the Arroyo dle los Berros, opposite to the traces of former settlements about seven miles inland. These tombs only differed from those of Kesmali in not being lined with the thick burnt, brick-like erust men- tioned above, but with a thin, light-colored erust, slightly burned, and not more than a quarter of an inch thick.
VILLAGES OF NIPOMO AND WALEKHE.
" In company with the well-informed and industrious anti- quaries, Doctor Hays and Judge Venabel, I explored another aboriginal settlement known by the name of Nipomo. It is situated on a large rancho of like name, and distant about a mile and a half from the Nipomo Ranch House, occupied by the hospitable Dana brothers. Lastly I examined the Walekhe settlement. About twenty-five miles from the month of the Santa Maria river, there empties into it the Alamo creek, bringing down rather a large amount of water. Following ... the wide bed of the Santa Maria for about seven miles farther up stream, one reaches a smooth elevation, which at this place
48
CHARACTER AND HABITS OF THE INDIANS.
rises about sixty feet above the bed of the creek, and which trends in a curve toward the mountains on the right bank. At the fartherest end of this, at a place where a fine view over the whole valley is had, we find the traces of the ancient village now known as Walekhe. A short distance from the former dwellings on the highest point of the ridge, a small excavation marks the spot where onee a house stood, probably that of a chief, And here, indeed, I voluntarily imagined that I saw with my bodily eyes the strange primeval race that onee called this place home.
CHARACTER OF DOMESTIC UTENSILS.
" With regard to the general character of the domestic uten- sils, arms, and ornaments which I found in the digging down to, and examining of, about three hundred skeletons in the graves of Kesmali, Temeteti, Nipomo, and Walekhe, these things from the different localities named resembled each other very elosely, seeming to show that all their possessors belonged to the same tribe. First of all, the large cooking-pots draw one's attention-hollow globular or pear-shaped bodies, hol- lowed out of magnesian miea. The circular opening, having a small and narrow rim, measures only five inches in diameter in a pot with a diameter of cighteen inches. Near the edge. of the opening, this vessel is only a quarter or an inch thick, but it thickens in a very regular manner towards the bottom, where it measures about one and a quarter inches through. Made of the same material, I found other pots of a different shape-namely, very wide across the opening, and narrowing as they grow toward the bottom. With these I have also now in my possession many different sizes of sandstone mortars of a general semi-globular shape, varying from three inches in diain- eter and an inch and a half in height, up to sixteen inches in diameter and thirteen inches in height-all external measure- ments-with pestles of the same material to correspond. There were, further, quite an assortment of cups, measuring from one and a quarter to six inches in diameter, neatly worked out of polished serpentine. The smallest of these that I found was inclosed, as in a doubly covered dish, by three shells, and con- tained paint; traces of which, by the by, were found in all these cups, from which we may suppose that they were not in use for hokling food.
" Neither spoons nor knives were found in these graves. I got, however, three beautiful cigar-holder-like pipes of serpen- tine, much stronger than, but similar in shape to, those dug out in Oregon. But few arms were picked up here-only a few arrow-heads and spear-heads; these, however, mostly of exquisite workmanship. A spear-head of obsidian, five and a half inches long, was the only object I found of this material; another lance-point of chalcedony, nine and a half inches long, and one and a quarter inches wide, was beautifully shaped and carefully made.
" Many of these objects were found perfect, and those that were broken had been broken by the shifting and pressure of the soil, as could easily be seen from their position. It is. therefore, certain that the bulk of the property buried with a person was not purposely broken or destroyed-the same thing holding true in my investigations in Oregon. I even found mortars and pestles which had been repaired and cemented with asphaltum. The richer occupants of these graves had shell beads in great numbers, sickle-shaped ornaments of the abalone shell, and an ornament resembling the dentalium but made of a large elau-shell, within or strewed about their heads-striv- ing, though they brought nothing into the world, at least to carry something out."
The race is a thing of the past; the villages which dotted the banks of the rivers are razed to the ground, and nearly all traces of their existence are obliterated. Most of the aborig- iues have gone to the happy hunting-grounds, those remaining being scattered among the hills and settlements, possessing no tribal relations or village organizations.
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