ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



221 



of the Coast Range, 1730 feet above the level of the sea, in strati- 

 fied rocks, and expressed the opinion that they were imbedded in 

 the rocks when the latter were below the surface of the ocean. 



On some recently discovered Aboriginal Implements. 



BY JAMES BLAKE, M. D. 



As the evidences are mnltiplying of man's pre.~ence on tlie earth at periods 

 far anterior to the time that has usually been allotted to him. every well-authen- 

 ticated fact bearing on this subject becomes of importance, as tending to atford 

 that cumulative mass of evidence which will be necessary to dissipate the mis- 

 conceptions that generally prevail on this point. There can be no doubt but 

 that, up to the present time, the earliest traces of man's existence on the earth 

 have been found in this country. The skull that wao found in the Pliocene 

 deposits at Table Mountain is undoubtedly the oldest human skull that has yet 

 been discovered. But besides this, many stone mortars have been found in the 

 same deposits, evidently showing the existence of man at this early period of 

 animal development. I myself have seen the spot from which one of these mor- 

 tars was removed, some ten feet beneath the surface of the Pliocene gravels in 

 the Sierras, and some hundred feet above the level of the Sacramento Valley. 

 The objects I now have to submit to the Academy afford stiH further impor- 

 tant evidence bearing on this fact. They are two implements cut in serpentine, 

 evidently fashioned by the hand of man, or of some animal capable of using 

 its anterior extremities so as to fashion objects to meet its wants, and ap- 

 parently possessed of sufficient intelligence to make nets, or to use lines for 

 catching fish, as this would seem to be the use to which these stone imple- 

 ments were applied— viz: as sinkers. The instruments are cut in serpentine, 

 the surface of which is slightly weathered to a depth of about l-30th of an 



inch. One, (Fig. 1) is pear-shaped, 3K^ inches long, 6)2 inches in c'rcura''er- 

 ence at its largest part ; near the smaller end is a hole, and immediately over it 



Peoc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Vol. IV,— 17. January, 1873. 



