18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



Extract of a Letter relating to Ilammalmn Fossils in Califor- 

 nia Prof. Leidy read an extract from a letter recently received 

 from Dr. Lorenzo G. Yates, of Centreville, Alameda Count}', 

 California, as follows : 



Yours of the 29th came to hand, and also a copy of your work, 

 " Contributions to the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western 

 Territories," for which accept my thanks. Prof. E. O. Hovey's 

 statement in relation to the localities of some of the fossils, page 

 229, of the " Contributions," is incorrect. I discovered all the 

 fossils in a gravel deposit, which Avas evidently an old river 

 channel, in Livermore Valle}^, not from a " wash in the side of a 

 hill." 



The Bos latifrons, figs. 6, 7, plate xxviii. ; the Canis indianensis, 

 fig. 2, pi. xxxi. ; the Felis imperialis, fig. 3, pi. xxxi. ; and the 

 Auchenia hesterna, figs. 1-3, pi. xxxvii., together with the teeth 

 and bones of Elephas americanus, Equus, and the other bones 

 which I could not identify, were all discovered by me in that lo- 

 calit}^ 



Accompanying the letter was a newspaper slip of the discovery 

 of remains of Elephant and Mastodon in various localities, which 

 is here inserted. 



At a meeting of the Agassiz Institute at Sacramento, on the 

 17th of June, the following paper by Dr. L. G. Yates, of Centre- 

 ville, Alameda County, was read : 



The interest taken within the last few years in the " antiquity 

 of man" has invested the finding of the remains of the extnct 

 mammalia with a greater degree of interest than they would other- 

 wise receive, and the question is one which has b}^ common consent 

 been admitted to be one of the most important which has been 

 raised of late years, consequently the discovery of the bones and 

 teeth of any of the larger animals, their geological location and 

 surroundiiigs, is matter of interest to men of science and the ma- 

 jority of educated minds of all classes. 



Less than fifty j^ears ago the discovery of the bones of a fossil 

 elephant, or other large animal, would have been looked upon as 

 evidence supporting some popular superstition in relation to giants 

 or tritons, and by some, less sceptical than the majorit^y, they 

 would have been called a lusus natura?, or, as the writer has heard 

 them pronounced within the last three or four years, " peculiarly 

 formed rock," or "the bones of some common animal which has 

 grown in size since the animal died." But the majority of the 

 people of California at tlie present day are better informed on the 

 subject, and admit the finding of remains of extinct animals of 

 size and form different from those now existing in temperate re- 

 gions ; yet, within the last two or three years, the writer remem- 

 bers having seen an item in one of our interior papers, giving an 

 account of the finding of a "huge til)ia," and giving it (on the 

 authority of some " Doctor") as the bone of a " human" or of 

 some other " upright walking animal." 



