452 AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



have been carried in for one purpose or another, embedded in the 

 gravels, and afterwards dug up and carried out to the superintendent 

 than that the implements of a Tertiary race should have been left in 

 the bed of a Tertiary torrent to be brought out as good as new, after 

 the lapse of vast periods of time, into the camp of a modern commu- 

 nity using identical forms? 



I took pains to have Mr, Neale tell me the story of the finds in all 

 possible detail. The account as related in the work of Dr. Becker 

 had evidently passed out of his mind in large degree, as it had also 

 passed out of my own. His statements, written down in my noteljook 

 during and immediatel}^ following the interview, were to the following 

 effect: 



One of the miners coming out to lunch at noon brought with him to 

 the superintendent's office a stone mortar and a broken pestle which 

 he said had been dug up in the deepest part of the tunnel, some 1,500 

 feet from the mouth of the mine (see PI. XIII). Mr. Neale advised 

 him on returning to work to look out for other utensils in the same 

 place, and agreeably to his expectations two others were secured, a 

 small ovoid mortar, .5 or H inches in diameter, and a flattish mortar or 



Fig. 3.^tJutline of obsidian impkuu'iil «iiil to have befii fotiiid in Monti'zuina mine, as sketclied 



by Mr. Neale. 



dish, T or S inches in diameter. These have since been lost to sight. 

 On another occasion a lot of obsidian blades, or spearheads, eleven in 

 number and averaging 10 inches in length, were brought to him by 

 workmen from the mine. The}^ had been found in what Mr. Neale 

 called a "side channel;" that is, the bed of a ])ranch of the main Ter- 

 tiary stream, about a thousand feet in from the mouth of the tunnel, 

 and 200 or 300 feet vertically from the surface of the mountain slope. 

 These measurements were given as estimates only, but at the same 

 time they were, he felt sure, not far wrong. Four or five of the 

 specimens he gave to Mr. O. D. Voy, the collector. The others also 

 had been given away, l)ut all trace of them had been lost. Mr. Neale 

 spoke enthusiastically of the size and perfection of these imphmients, 

 and as he spoke drew outlines of long notched blades in the dust at 

 our feet. Some had one notch (see fig. 3), some had two notches, 

 and others were plain leaf shape blades. 



Desiring to find out more concerning these objects, he went on to 

 say, he showed them to the Indians who chanced to be present, but, 

 strangely enough, they expressed great fear of them, refusing to 



