FAEQUHARSON ON INSCRIBED TABLETS. 115 



nection with the bones of the mastodon, or of other extinct animals, 

 his contemporaries. 



Bancroft says :* " The mining shafts of California have brought to 

 light human remains, implements wrought by human hands, and bones 

 of extinct animals, at great depths below the surface, evidently of great 

 age. 



Whitney found in California in 1857 the works of man with bones of 

 the mastodon, and says :t " There is every reason to believe that these 

 great proboscidians lived at a very recent period (geologically speaking), 

 and posterior to the epoch of the existence of glaciers in the Sierra 

 Kevada, and also after the close of the period of activity of the now ex- 

 tinct volcanoes of that great chain." 



Holmes, in "South Carolina in 1858, "| found pottery at the base of a 

 peat bed, on the banks of Ashley River, in close connection with the 

 grinder of a mastodon. 



Hilgard, in Louisiana in 1867, in the salt mine of Petite Ansa Island, 

 found the works of man, with the bones of a mastodon. There are two 

 instances in America of the existence of the effigies of the mastodon in 

 monumental structures. First, in the splendid ruins of Copan and 

 Palenque, where they occur as sculptured ornaments of buildings, in the 

 form of massive heads with huge trunks ; and secondly, in the instance of 

 the celebrated elephant mound of Wisconsin. Of the latter, the original 

 describer in the Smithsonian Report for 1872, has the following remark : 

 "Is not the existence of such a mound good evidence of the contempo- 

 raneous existence of the mastodon and the mound builders V" 



Ladies and Gentlemen, the last link in the chain of evidence of the 

 coeval life of man and the mastodon on this continent, beai*s the date of 

 1877, and is to be found on the face of the Hunting Scene Tablet, now 

 before you. 



The paper was illustrated by charts of ancient and modern 

 letter characters, and was referred to the Publication Comhiittee. 



Prof. W. D. Gunning was present, and in response to a call, 

 made some interesting remarks, in which he alluded to these 

 archaeological discoveries as promising very important results. 



Mr, W. H. Pratt exhibited a stone carving, representing a 

 human head, said to have been exhumed from a well excavation 

 at a depth of thirty-nine feet below the surface fn Hardin 

 County, Iowa, and which was sent to the Academy by the 

 owner for an expression of its opinion. The letter accompany- 

 ing left some doubt in regard to the exact location of the speci- 



*Nativ9 Tribes, vol. 4, p. 688. 



fProceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Vol. 3, p. 278. 



tProc. of Phila. Acad, of Nat. Sci., Jaly, 1859, p. 179. 



