420 AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



own mind as to the value of the evidence, and it seemed within the 

 range of possibility that something decisive in the way of new evi- 

 dence, or of side lights on the old, might develop — something that 

 would open the way to a final settlement of the great questions at 

 issue. 



In September, 1898, I received instructions from the Secretary of 

 the Smithsonian Institution to visit California for the purpose of mak- 

 ing collections and of prosecuting anthropological investigations along 

 such lines as might promise to be of value to the National Museum. 

 It was arranged that the work should be conducted under the auspices 

 of the Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology. A short time 

 before setting out I learned that Prof. W J McGee was contemplat- 

 ing a trip to the Southwest a little later in the season, and I succeeded 

 in inducing him to join me for a short time in the auriferous gravel 

 region; I thus had the advantage of conjoint work with him in a sec- 

 tion of superlative interest geologically, archaaologically , and scenically , 

 and one that has been made classic in science b}^ Whitney and in song 

 by Bret Harte. 



HISTORY OF DISCOVERIES. 



The auriferous, or gold-bearing, gravels, with which we are espe- 

 cially concerned, are scattered over a vast area in central California, 

 extending from the high sierra on the east down the far-reaching 

 ridges and canyons to the lowlands of the coastal belt, and from the 

 Yuba on the north to the Merced on the south, an area equal in extent, 

 perhaps, to that of the State of Connecticut. 



The great gold discoveries began with the influx of miners in 1849 

 and during the two or three succeeding decades the gravel deposits 

 were dug over to an extent without parallel in the history of mining 

 operations. They were first attacked by pick and pan, then sluicing 

 was introduced, and later hydraulic operations were conducted on a 

 grand scale. Tunnel mining was also extensively carried on, and 

 the mountains were pierced by countless shafts, sometimes so close 

 together and so profound that it seemed almost that the mountains 

 might collapse. This work had not continued long when reports 

 began to be circulated, gradually reaching the ears of the outer world, 

 that relics of man were found in these gravels, and controversies arose 

 in which the religious press took an active part, combating the idea 

 that traces of man could be found in formations that antedated the 

 days of Adam, as these gravels evidently did. Mr. C. D. Voy, of 

 Oakland, Dr. Perez Snell, of Sonora, and others collected various 

 relics reported to have come from the gravels and secured some data 

 relating to their origin; but the matter was never brought to a focus 

 until Professor Whitney became interested in the discoveries and in 

 the early sixties began with his assistants to visit the district and to 

 collect and collate the scattered but remarkable observations. 



