The California beaches have furnished some of the most interesting ornamental pebbles, the greater number being of chalcedony or agate weathered from an amygdaloidal rock, while a few are of jasper or fossil coral. Their variegated color-markings made them very attractive ornamental objects in themselves, and there is reason to believe that centuries ago the Indians of this region valued them as talismans or amulets. At present the finest specimens are gathered from Pescadero Beach in San Mateo County, about twenty-four miles west of San José, Redondo Beach, fifteen miles south of Los Angeles, and also from Crescent City Beach, in the northern part of California. On Moonstone Beach, Santa Catalina Island, many beautiful quartz and chalcedony nodules have been picked up, which have weathered out of ryolite rock of sanidine feldspar and quartz. It has been quite a custom for guests of the hotels to go down to Redondo Beach and gather these pebbles, and some of those collected by enterprising natives are placed in a bottle of water to bring out the beauty of their colors. Sometimes they are drilled and strung on flexible wire to form long chains or necklaces. Several pebbles presumably from Redondo Beach were found, in 1901, in an Indian grave, where they were probably placed as amulets for the dead.[50] [Illustration: By courtesy of California State Mining Bureau. 1. Chalcedony and agate pebbles from Pescadero Beach, San Mateo County, California. 2. Pebble Beach, Redondo, Los Angeles County, California. From George Frederick Kunz’s “Semi-precious Stones of California,” Sacramento, 1905. Bulletin No. 37 of the State Mining Bureau. ]