424 AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



known as the "Calaveras skull/' and a few unimportant fragments of 

 another skull. Fragments of skulls and various bones of the body- 

 have been reported from the old gravels in a numlier of localities. 

 These remains, and especially the Calaveras skull, indicate a man not 

 differing materially from the California Indian of to-day, although said 

 by Whitney to present some characteristics of the Eskimo. 



D. The remains of human handiwork to be considered are, on the 

 other hand, quite numerous. Many hundreds of specimens ha^•e l^een 

 reported from the gravels, and are believed, in a general way, to belong 

 to the Neocene deposits. According to the tinders, many of them were 

 intimately associated with the remains of fossil animals and plants, and 

 some appear to be from gravels that antedate the volcanic era. 



INCONGRUITIES IN THE EVIDENCE. 



In comparing these four groups of remains we observe that the 

 fossil animals belong without exception to extinct species, that the 

 plants are likewise extinct, and that all of both groups take their place 

 naturally within the limits of the Neocene. When, however, we 

 examine the human remains, we are met by the striking fact that they 

 do not represent an extinct form, or even a well-marked variety of 

 Ildiiio sajrieni^, but a people practically identical Avith ourselves; audit 

 till refore takes a great stretch of the imagination to conceive that 

 this man could have formed part of a fauna every other mammalian 

 member of which has succumbed during the uncounted centuries of 

 succeeding geologic periods. 



On examining the art remains it is found that they also seem out of 

 place in Tertiary times, that they present a decidedly modern aspect. 

 Of the fifteen or twent}^ varieties reported from the gravels by Whit- 

 ney and others, all appear to be of recent types. They are practically 

 identical with the stone implements used by the native tribes of Cali- 

 fornia to-day or in the recent past. If these forms are really of Ter- 

 tiar}^ origin, we have here one of the greatest marvels yet encountered 

 by science; and perhaps if Pi'ofessor Whitney had f ull}- appreciated 

 the story of human evolution as it is understood to-da}^, he would have 

 hesitated to announce the conclusions formulated, notwithstanding the 

 imposing array of testimony with which he was confronted. To sup- 

 pose that man could have remained unchanged physically; to suppose 

 that he could have remained unchanged mentally, socially, industrially, 

 and esthetically for a million years, roughly speaking (and all of this 

 is implied by the evidence furnished), seems, in the present state of 

 our knowledge, hardly less than admitting a miracle. 



Professor Whitney believed the implements found were just such as 

 might be expected of a Tertiary man, and observes: 



"It has been always the same kind of implements which have been 

 exhibited to us, namely, the coarsest and least finished which one 

 would suppose could be made and still be implements."^ 



^Auriferous gravels, p. 279. 



