450 



AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



the mines, and it is entirely reasonable to suppose that their imple- 

 ments and utensils would at times be carried into the mines, perhaps 

 to prepare or contain food, or perhaps merely as a natural proceeding 

 with half-nomadic peoples ha))itually carrying- their property about 

 with them from want of a house in which to lock it up. That any 

 kind of native implement should be carried into the tunnels, there to 

 be lost or forg-otten and covered up as the handling- and rehundliug of 

 gravels went on, is not unnatural. That such should be afterwards dug 

 up with the reopening of passageways and the shifting of the tailings is 

 to ])e expected, for the search for gold under these old lava beds was not 

 a straight-away boring of the mountains, but a driving and redriving of 

 tunnels in an^' direction that promised renewed finds of pay material. 

 As a matter of course little attention was paid to the comings and 

 goings of the humble helpers, and if miners came upon stray imple- 

 ments buried in the gravels it is quite natural that they should report 

 them to the foremen or superintendents without seriously considering 

 the question as to recent or ancient origin. Naturally littli; value was 

 attached to such specimens, as the real signiticance of their occurrence 

 in the old gravel was at most but diiidv understood. 



MOr.TCZOMA 



Fig. 2. — Section of Table Mountain showing mines penetrating to old river channels. The tunnels 

 are not literally rendered, but are sketched in merely to show the methods of reaching the gold gravels. 

 The position of the King find beneath the lava cap is shown. See illustration of specimen, PI. XIV. 



Again, let us not forget, it is quite within the bounds of probability 

 that some fun-loving miner should have sought amusement ])y report- 

 ing objects found about the camp, to the superintendent or others, 

 pretending that they came from beneath the mountain. There can be 

 no doubt that practical joking of this character was prevalent in those 

 days, and that implements of the classes involved in this discussion 

 were known by the miners to excite unusual interest in religious as 

 well as scientitic quarters. There are thus two ways in which errors 

 might have crept into the evidence — two ways, either of which would 

 lead to that repetition of like tinds which is considered so significant 

 by advocates of antiquity. 



The Neale finds. — The case cited in detail by Dr. Becker may well 

 illustrate what I have been saying, and this case, it should be noted, is 

 a typical one, and constitutes one of the strongest bits of testimony of 



