The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
October 1956, Volume 2, Number 4
Jerry MacMullen, Editor

A DOG’S LIFE WAS INSECURE in the Spanish period of San Diego. Bone fragments dug out just below Serra Museum by B. E. McCown and Dr. Carl Hubbs were submitted to the Smithsonian Institution for identification as a clue to Indian menus, the bones having been dug out of an ancient fireplace adjoining the Presidio. Bones proved to be those of deer, sheep, cattle-and dogs. In matters of diet, the natives were not fussy.

MILD CONFUSION PREVAILS as the result of another identification by the Smithsonian. A sword-hilt from San Pasqual proved to be from a sword carried by sergeants from 1840 to 1898, which puts it into the right period. The trouble is that this particular type of sword was issued to infantry sergeants, and the American troops at San Pasqual were dragoons, which appears to make it a case of the right period in history, but the wrong kind of a sergeant, and leaves us little better off than we were.