A'NTHROTOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CALIFORNIA. 167 



best qualifiod to inform us reo-ardino- tho iniiies and their history, and 

 were so fortuntito as to meet Mr. Rieliard CUark, a well-known citizen 

 and extensive mine owium-, who had ))een in the district from the 

 very befjinnino-. It was soon learned that the oreat Dardanelles 

 mine, owned and worked by Mr. Clark, was about 1 mile south of the 

 village, and in his company the site was at once visited. The mine 

 occurs several hundred feet down the slope descending- into the canyon 

 of the Middle Fork, and on a narrow l>ench called Oro Flat. Here 

 the outcropping- margin of the gravel deposits of a Tertiary river 

 channel are exposed in a heavy deposit 200 to 4O0 feet thick. The 

 mining operations destroyed a large part of the fiat, leaA'ing at the 

 upper margin, when active work ceased ten years ago, an irregular 

 gravel clitl' half a mile long, exposing the full thickness of the gravels 

 now consideral)ly weathered down and gullied b\' erosion. Approach- 

 ing from above, we descended to the flat and halted upon a rounded 

 portion of the surface overlooking the brink of the mine. Here was 

 a small farm, and a tield immediately above the deepest part of the 

 mine was quite bare, although it had not l)een cultivated apparently 

 for some years. It was soon discovered that the spot had been exten- 

 sively occupied by the native peoples, and in the course of the fore- 

 noon a dozen mealing stones and mortars (Plate 2), thirty hand stones 

 and pestles (Plate 3), and many minor relics — mainly arrow and spear 

 points — were collected. It was noticed that the outer margin of the 

 site had been encroached upon b}^ the mine and perhaps a third or 

 half of it had been destroyed. It was further seen that the site slopes 

 toward the vertical brink of the mine, and that many gullies are cut, 

 growing deeper toward the cliff, and that near the margin they are so 

 deep and precipitous that it was unsafe to enter them. The relics were 

 found all over the tield. ])ut more abundantly in the gullies where they 

 had rolled and lodged; but all were surely on their way to the mine. 

 Naturally, onh- the smaller, flatter objects remained, the round pestles 

 and the globular mortal's had long since found their way into the mine 

 below, where the}^ became intermingled with the great mass of loose 

 gravels and bowlders. Some specimens were found far down the 

 sides of the mine lodged on ledges and in heaps of debris, and the fact 

 was impressed upon our minds that flnds of stone relics in the mine, 

 unless made by expert observers, could have no value as an index of 

 age. On the brink of the mine were found also conical mortar basins 

 worked in the surface of large bowlders and outcropping rocks. Mr. 

 Clark assured us that this site had not been occupied by the natives 

 since the opening of the mine in 1852, and it is cUnir that as the min- 

 ing work went on all along the lower margin of this site the stone 

 implements rolled in, and it is no wonder that collectors were able to 

 secure from it the flat dish or platter of granite referred to by Whit- 

 ney, for a dozen of these oljjects wei'c still scattered along the l)rink 



