AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 451 



its class on record.' Mr. J. H. Neale was superinteiKlciit of the Mon- 

 tezuma mine, situated on the western slope of Table Mountain, 4 or 5 

 miles southwest of the village of Jamestown. The gold-bearing gravels 

 of the old river ])ed beneath the mountain, covered by the claim, became 

 exhausted, and the mine was closed several years ago. Mr. Neale now 

 resides in the town of Sonora, 5 miles north of Jamestown. In 1877, 

 according to Dr. Becker's account, Mr. Neale discovered sonu^ mortars, 

 pestles, and obsidian implements in the deepest part of the mine, 

 beneath Table Mountain and close to the bed rock. These objects soon 

 passed out of his hands, and one of the mortars with the accompany- 

 ing pestle (see PI. XIII) was given to Dr. R. I. Bromley, of Sonora. 

 Ten years after the finding these specimens came to the notice of Dr. 

 Becker, who, desiring to learn more of their origin, sought out Mr. 

 Neale, and obtained the statement to which atiidavit was made, the 

 circumstances being given in detail in Dr. Becker's paper. The essen- 

 tial paragraphs of the document are as follows: 



At a distance of between 1,400 and 1,500 feet from the mouth of the 

 tunnel, or of between 200 and 300 feet beyond the edge of the solid 

 lava, Mr. Neale saw several spearheads of some dark rock and nearly 

 one foot in length. On exploring further, he himself found a small 

 mortar three or four inches in diameter and of irregular shape. This 

 was discovered within a foot or two of the spearheads. He then found 

 a large, well-formed pestle, now the property of Dr. R. I. Bromley, 

 and near by a large and very regular mortar, also at present the })rop- 

 erty of Dr. Bromley. 



All of these relics were found the same afternoon, and were within 

 a few feet of one another and close to the bed rock, perhaps within 

 1 foot of it. (P. 192.) 



I took the trouble to visit the mine, which was found closed and 

 caved in about the mouth, and with a newly opened tunnel alongside. 

 The site is on a steep slope, falling away to the west from the base of 

 the towering escarpment of the mountain (and apparently nuich more 

 than 1,500 feet from it), and is surrounded by limited areas upon 

 which houses could be built or lodges pitched. All about I found 

 traces of native occupancy, and a dozen mortars, pestles, and pound- 

 ing stones were picked up. These did not differ in character or mate- 

 rial from the corresponding varieties of utensils reported from the 

 deep gravels. The Neale affidavit states that the mortars and other 

 implements therein referred to were found in the tunnel, some 1,500 

 fett from the mouth of the mine and 200 or 300 feet in beyond the 

 margin of the lava cap of the mountain, and hence beneath several 

 hundred feet of the volcanic deposits that covered the country before 

 the valleys of to-day began to be scored out (see fig. 2). 



Is it not more reasonable to suppose that some of the typical imple- 

 ments of the Indians living at the mouth of Montezuma mine should 



* Geo. F. Becker, Antiquities from under Tuolumne Table Mountain in California. 

 Bull. Geol. Soc. of America, Vol. II, p. 189. 



