Show AN Ali ISLE OF SKULLS f I CaliforniA Islands That Thal Were Ono Inhabited by n a Now Desolation of Spot Which S Supported Life h i 1 as 11 of students IN ban bun made UP In Lot Los Angeles and to explore thoroughly tb the Chanel 01 off that part art of lb the B of California known at Santa Banta and Ban Buenaventura coun conn u the during the nut next lis 11 mutha sari saria y Ii a Idal to the Chicago Record The Th f party II h to be sustained Ined b by U largely aDd aed to a leis lea IS ax I teat by ral colleges In southern lOuthern California oal ud aed students ta who spent pent several creeks each on these c islands say tay they are un une of the very richest laid fur for work In that depart meat t of knowledge on the Pacific coast couto TIll The Channel Islands Call only with the poe pol of the rork rocky and scanty Islands They have been ob or of romance legends and mystery for a generation or more all the Island Illand are mile of Iho ore thy they are solitary And and years roll b by with Ith visits to them of I less than Ihan people annual annually ly lr Cash blinds has hall Its own Particular I strange C uncanny of the triM tribes of red men end and each has hal cOunt lies trace of an occupation by thou sad and thousands of Indians When Juan Juau Rodriguez the I grass navigator sailed up the coast coul coulot ot at California In J U he stopped for a ada aday da day or two at al each lach of the Cannel id 11 n and his hili records rord bear testimony that on the islands of Banta Barbara Catalina Clemente and Nicholas there were a vigorous and lusty race I or of natives who the shores of the line little bays bAr and anti I gazed In mute wonder at the white called lall ship or of the navigators Today the sterol stand RI as they did over 11 Ago but the natives are re only a nl mory represented by immense quan tWill ot of stone ston barrels ot of fine wampum and literally of human banes bonell EIGHTY MILES IHO FROM t St Nicholas Island U lies eighty Ight miles immediately the little city of ofSan San Buenaventura recently called bythe by bytho I the tho more modern And easy name of I Ventura and its the mat mott of all the Islands from many points or of view All As far bark back as the mem memery ery ry of on ony 1 In southern CAlifor CAlifornia nia runs run hundreds of whit while skeletons have dotted the valleys and hillsides 1 strange o utensils of serpentine rand tetone Ilono and me nr found there the human bones and nil the UI III and and Its erstwhile Inhabitants have haven n history so 80 curious that It Is dIfficult or of comprehension In the padres In the Santa Banta Barbara mission mIllion learning thAt there were rere but sixteen of the strange tran and almost t extinct Indian race mc then Jiving diving there determined to rescue them from the island laland Thy They went over In a sloop loop and succeeded en as the they thought In getting all on board beaT At the last Iut mo In an Indian woman returned for tor her child and one of the frequent storms of elt the Channel islands springing up the stoop loop was driven aR away without tir hr The sloop went Int on the rocks off Point Paint Conception and all were lost Sixteen later Capt George Georg end and two this coast on a spa p to hunt otter ort off St Nicholas On lAnd if I lag they were like ilkI astonished d to human In hI the theland sand land Th saw laW no one OhP however and anda a storm them to put to sea it II was all twO years thereafter that th adventurer ne ra In his hiM mind Ih the of tilt In tI the uncanny liland Is ltd to go 0 to and bring over lb Ih I nely Ir woo wo woman man un of whom lit he had heard him UI length th lOa saw on the surf shore hor a with long luW tawny In Ina I a garb of colored bird shins and scraping with a bone knit the blubber trim a ah seal They h and approached tier her stealthily and although suddenly con fron rd she h dill did not a appear ar In n th the lent afraid arald hut but mined and then falling fAllinI on I her knees prayed to the un sun Tb The wild I woman offend t no objection when by I signs she f made to 10 understand that she was aa to JO go with them in the boat L ST OI OF mm HRH nACle They reached i anta across the rou rough h sea end and the drat thing the indian woman woman II saw wU wale at a man tt riding a horse Ih She had never mien nor hear ut of any Ilk Ilke It and anel thought the theman theman man and hone were on one and she knelt knelton on the shore hore and her devotions to it II Two afterward the last hut Inhabitant of rock tempest to ll Bt died tram eating I food 1 in wl which h she was wa unaccustomed furnished by hl het rescuer and lb the cur curlain curtain lain tain tell fell on hr her race forever Corver Till The Woman known na the Lone Ione ot of Nicholas Nichol has baa b ln the subject of a score ore o of roman s and poems Bt is II ten mil miles long and four miles wide whit at t the widest point It Ito topography shows a neary level Iel pla pIa plateau with an 0 of SOO to 10 1000 feet of the surface is II covered with drifting sand and the noo tr rows a 8 of oC grass rrue and moss on which a thousand sheep find pasture Several springs Nave been discovered but their water ater la II slightly brackish Of late years the Island is II rarely visited b by sheep and shell hell gatherers who snake Inake annual tr trips In schooners fishing smacks or Chinese junks Junk The only cafe landing ground at St Nicholas Is nt at ural harbor a 0 pretty I rot rose formed by bS two sandstone arms I thrust out from the main harrier of the shore hort The entrance Is IH but or Be Ben sev seven en n yards across and the lIter within le II as AI placid at as a lake IRke and deep to 10 float a vessel el or of twenty tons I bUTI burden n On the bleak silvery strip of beach Immense white pelicans are to tobo tobe I bo be lI seen n at almost any season of the year fn with stately dignity on nn the approach of the Iho dingy they spread their t lr heavy tainted p win wings and vanish over oer th the rocks Farther liP up the slope lope or of the there Is 1 a dilapidated td ed shearing II shed hill and 1 a weatherworn shanty belonging to Chinese shell gath Nothing more desolate than the general appearance of the Island can an well be Imagined IM IS As far All as the eye ee can an trace there therl are barren harrell levels with Ith Innumerable circular showing where primitive dwellings once stood Not a vestige remains ot of the materials used In the construction of these thul Hundred Hun dred Ja ot of shell mounds are scattered about aboul and R are found to consist ot of ns as numbers of mollusks the bones of eror every species of fish found In T T TI i i I I l lf I e ep p j 4 t tI nt I I a 1 e eI M f I I I t I J r dH I I L hE ICA TROOPS T OOPS CAPTURE APACHES V I t I the eh hannI annel skeletons of seals Hal sea sen elephants whales sea HR otter the Island fox and various aquatic birds With Without Without out question these theN animals were u used ec for food b by the tribe that once thronged these boundaries The There are also allO nu numerous canine skeletons several ot of I which indicated J a species ot of bull ter Judging from rom the Immense Quan titles ot of dealt land nil mollusks every everywhere where herl there thre must liars been en n a time when the Ilia Island rIll supported a luxuriant vegetation Ot Of all this verdure noth ing I is seen toda today but a few ew stunt stunted l thorn bushes buhel and now and then a cactus forlornly reaching Its grotesque arms arm out of the Interminable sweeps of sand At 1st examination of some or of tue mounds nil all sorts of curious cooking dots mor mortars tars pestles drills drill bone bont needles and fib hooks shell heads beads charm stones piped cups CUPI and n a few Points and swords made malle of bone The absence or of ninny many weapons w a proves the peaceful attributes ot of the l Islanders Small Imitation ot of boats anti and fish carved from rom crystallized tale talc and ser also shows n a rudimentary knowledge of the art of sculpture In Inman Inmany man many paces conical plies of small black pebbles contrasts oddly Idl with the white sand In n some Ome Instances these pebbles are packed In abalone shells No 0 truce Is seen of the bru brush h pens pensIn In which a woman for tor years year found her only shelter helter from the cutting winds wInde and rand Nature ever eer unmindful or of orthe the Individual long since Inee merged the Ihl superhuman efforts of this courageous lire life Into the universal tate fate of nn an entire race indeed eer every foot ot of the strange strang Island Is eloquent of the extinction of almost people A 1 trip along the west const coast ot of St NIcholas island over oer a vast extent or of shell mounds sets one to wondering how It was possible for n a lien 1 population to 10 consume such prodigious numbers of mollusks In fact act the thi Infinite variety of on St Rt Nicholas le Is said by bIologists not notto notto to be exceeded d b by any other known re region lon of equal area The fhe shore line Is of coarse 8 burrowed b by the tho pounding surf Into fantastic alcoves bridges bridge columns and caves ces Sometimes these I savage ance cuts form orm rude em effigies bearing n a surprising to living One of the most Is exact counterpart of the neck brit t and body ot of l a bird with An alert head This place or of natures sculpturing must be forty lorty feet long and beheld from n distance looks quite all as perfect 1 a as It If fashioned by Thero are arl hundreds ot of of this freak of nature sold Hold all over ocr Call Cali CalifornIa forma fornIa Going westward from this gnawed I wall the ground makes a at t ascent to a wide mesa aUng In n a steep es escarpment The At from this Ihl elevation Is so dell cately clear that the eye cnn can readily distinguish the peaked tops of nil all the channel 1 islands several of them beIng forty miles awa away I nt at our feet teet there stretches away a dreary desert of stupendous barrenness A characteristic ot of the place pIAO wore were heaps hoaps ot of the bones ot of whales their arrangement und and packing so system correct as to have withstood tood n a sweep of at winds over this ex cx posed point hut But one human skeleton hu has been found here hert its lis bleached die aspect In k with the desolateness ot of the The merciless s blast had pilled the sand Hand dunes nil all about but spread no kindlY drift over oCr this rough sketch of man manAll manAll All around are r the casts of roots of trees In the shifting sand ranging all the WilY way In size front coarse conre fiber to several Inches In diameter These semi are Intact the wind hay hav havIng log Ing them clean pf or the loose earth rth They yield a 11 ring when tapped with II a rock or shell A still stillmore more remarkable feature of thIs desert is III tl a atone forest the broken columns composed d ot of sand At the extreme wet west end ot of the island there Is n a colossal precipice 1000 feet fejt In hel height ht It Its II charmed and face softened ned b by a luxuriant growth ot of em cm emera era oraid III moss and lichens N ANCIENT BATTLEFIELD The most of nil all the sights on this stran strange If fJ to be seen on the broad brond plateau f the Chinese e ecamp camp nt at Coral harbor acres AtS of the naked sand are arc littered with lIh hun tired of disjointed skeletons and pres present preset et ent the most reckless illustration of the ground plan of humanity that cnn can picture Measurements h been b ln made mallo by several scientists ot of th the high leg Ig and arm bones and amid liter literally ally 1 bushela ot of skulls and other parts ot of the hu n mine have been brought to Los from St Nicholas lel lelands ands for Cor Investigation The g eral opinion Is that the Indian race that swarmed over oer the Island was much larger r titan nil any civilized race of today and that some ot of the lane then men must have hae been seven feet three Inches tall The Tho skulls of oC this extinct tribe often otten men sure several inches more mort than some Ome ot of other large skulls ot of today tollay Many tany skulls I found lYing about on tie the Island show that their must have hae suffered death rain a club or blunt battle u ax uNo No one has ever eer yet et found n a skull kull on Sl NIcholas that shows marks ot of n a bullet There ore are many collar bones md and shoulder blades broken and crushed so that It Is evident their owner rn was killed i bY 8 some n instrument t i All as I a war club or a bowlder Scientists say a that the lie favorite wea weapon on In warfare with the Aleutian savage tribes n a cen bur tur and more ago alO was A club or goon SlOn and this tact fact fits with the stray tradition that the Aleutians carne came down and ond completely complete destroyed the people on Channel Islands |