Twenty-five or thirty years ago the shore line of the bay lay fifty feet farther out; a pile set at that time is still to be seen at that distance from the beach. It is above the water during high tide and marks the coast line on this side of which floodland was sold by the State. The top of the mound was not at that time crowned by the wooden pavilion which is there at the present time. It was still ungraded, having its natural conical form, and was covered with a wild growth of bushes and brambles. The creek, as yet unregulated, followed its own course and overflowed the land, causing it to become marshy. In the seventies and eighties of the last century, railroad tracks were laid along the eastern side of the mound, and took in a section of its eastern foot. At that time a number of graves and Indian artifacts were discovered. Few of these, however, found their way into the collections of the University, then but recently founded.
Early Settlements in the Region.
Fages, the first traveler who passed through the country, from south to north, traveled along the eastern shore of the Bay of San Francisco in 1774,[[1]] and came upon Indian settlements where he found a friendly welcome. His account of this expedition however, fails to throw any light upon the question whether or not the shellmounds were still occupied at that time. The neighboring creek bears the name of “Temescal” from a region between Berkeley and Oakland through which it passes.[[2]] This name appears to be a mutilation of the Nahua word “temazcalli,” hot-house, the name of sweat-houses in Mexico, and the place may have been so named by Mexicans living on the Bay, from an Indian sweat-house standing there. Hence it may be assumed that an Indian settlement was in existence on the banks of this creek at a time from which the name could pass over into the existing vocabulary.
Other evidences of early Indian settlements in this section of the eastern shore country of the Bay are the shellmounds, twelve of which may be found along the coast between Point Richmond and Alameda in a stretch of twelve miles ([pl. 1]). They may be seen near Point Richmond upon the eastern side, facing the peninsula, upon Brooks Island, near Ellis Landing, northeast from Stege upon a marshy ground intersected by narrow channels, near Seaver’s Ranch to the west from Stege, on Point Isabel, in West Berkeley, in Emeryville, and in the eastern section of Alameda between Mound, Central, and Lincoln avenues. There is also said to have been one in East Oakland on the canal between Oakland Harbor and Lake Merritt, but it has disappeared owing to building over that section of ground. In all probability many others may have met with a similar fate.
All these evidences of an early occupation of the country are but a few of the mounds that skirt the Bay upon all sides, continuing along Suisun Bay and the Sacramento and Feather rivers. Besides these, there are numerous mounds dotting the coast land of Northern California, those surrounding swamps and rivers along the Tulare and Kern lakes in southern California,[[3]] and on the shore near Santa Cruz. Others are found in the regions of San Luis Obispo,[[4]] of Santa Barbara,[[5]] and the islands opposite that place.
[1] Cf. H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races, 1886, II, p. 595.
[2] Cf. also “San Francisco Quadrangle” with the topographical maps of California by the U. S. Geological Survey.
[3] Warren K. Moorehead, Prehistoric Implements, 1900, p. 258.
[4] Paul Schumacher, Smithson. Reports, 1874, p. 335 ff.