446 



AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



were repeated at nearly every mine visited in Nevada. Placer, Eldorado, 

 and Calaveras counties. At Forest Hill, Placer County, the Darda- 

 nelles mine, extensively worked in the earh' days b}- Richard Clark and 

 others, has undermined and obliterated a half or more of a terraced spur 

 or ''flat,'' as such features are called in that country, formerly occupied 

 by an Indian village. (See plate XII.) According to Mr. Clark, who 

 still resides in Forest Hill, this site has not been occupied by the natives 

 since work began in the mine in 1852, but an hour's search l^rought to 

 light a dozen mortars and grinding stones, twenty or thirty rubbing 

 stones and pestles, together with several varieties of smaller tools. As 

 the ground of the site sloped toward the mine, most of the larger and 

 especially the rounder objects must long since have rolled into the 

 great pit (fig. 1), the gravel walls of which are on the one side upward 



Fig. 1. — Section showiiiK reluiioiis of ancient village site to gravel mine. 



^.Auriferou.s slates— bed rock: B, auriferous gravels, 250 feet thick; C, great excavation made in 

 gravels by hydraulic mining; I), crumbled gravels, result of caving in; E, ancient village site; 

 F, portion of village site destroyed by mine. The dark triangular figtires in the talus show the dis- 

 tribution of artifacts resulting from mining operations. 



of 200 feet in height. Many of the objects obtained by me were 

 already in the gullies leading down to the mine, and in the pre- 

 ceding half century large numbers must have gone over to become 

 intermingled with the gravels, where they would remain for good, 

 unless some observant miner happened to bring them to light. Speci- 

 mens thus found, falling into the hands of such collectors as C. D. Voy, 

 would naturally be added to the growing list of Tertiary gravel relics. 

 The flat dish or platter found by Voy in this or a neighboring mine^ 

 is identical in type with several of the specimens from the village site 

 on the brink of the mine. A rough, roundish mortar and a small 

 handstone were found by Professor McGee on a ledge 30 feet below 



^Auriferous gravels, p. 277. 



