AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 447 



the brink of this mine, where they had fallen from above, and at 

 Todd.s Valley, a few miles farther southward, a roundish bowlder 

 some 3 feet in diameter, having a neatly shaped mortar in one side of 

 it, was found resting on the bed rock of a deep mine. This specimen 

 also had undoubtedl}' iallen in from above. An Indian dwelling was 

 situated on the rim of the mine near by, and about it were scattered 

 mortars of all kinds. A brush shelter in which the women grind 

 acorns, a little higher up than the dwelling, contained a tixed mortar 

 with numerous pits and at least a dozen pestles, both flattish and cylin- 

 drical in shape. 



These sig'niticant relationships of Indian village sites and gravel 

 diggings were repeated everywhere, and although Whitney observed 

 the presence of the "Diggers," he made the mistake of supposing they 

 used only fixed mortars., that is, those worked in the surface of large 

 masses or outcrops of rock. The fact is that portable mortars and 

 grinding stones of diversified forms are and have been used by Indians 

 in all parts of California. It is not to be supposed that miners would 

 pay much attention to the origin of relics found by them in the mines, 

 since they attached no particular significance to them i so that between 

 the unwary geologist, the unthinking miner, and the professional 

 collector cultivating a prolific field, it is to be expected that many 

 mistakes w^ould l)e made. 



No one can venture to say j ust what percentage of the finds reported 

 by Whitney and accepted by him as evidence of antiquity arc of the 

 class here described, but certainly a large proportion may be assumed; 

 and the observations made above cast a shadow of doubt over all speci- 

 mens corresponding to known Indian forms reported from open mines, 

 from such shafts and tunnels as do not extend beneath undisturbed 

 formations, or from positions where any kind of post-Tertiary dis- 

 turbance could have taken place. 



In a second paper I hope to review the evidence further, and espe- 

 cially to present some data relating to the Calaveras skull. 



Second Paper. 



introduction. 



The main features of the problem of auriferous gravel man in CVh- 

 fornia stand out in bold relief. On the one hand the evidence is 

 interpreted as establishing the existence of a Tertiary man of high 

 type physically and mentally, equal or superior to the Indian tribes of 

 the region to-day, and occupying a culture plane corresponding to the 

 polished-stone age of Europe. It is assumed that this remotely ancient 

 man continued to live and thrive without perceptible advance or retro- 

 gression while nature passed through a thousand centuries of revolu- 

 tion; or that, as an alternative proposition, if the Tertiary race did not 



