456 AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



determine .something- of the physical characteristics and hence of the 

 mental equipment of the person to whom it belong-ed. The account 

 of the skull g-iven by Whitney includes a careful description by Jertries 

 Wyman. one of the hig-hest American authorities of the time. The 

 whole subject is presented in such manner as to convey to the unprej- 

 udiced mind an impression that the skull is a genuine and well-authen- 

 ticated relic of antiquity. 



The skull is said to have l)een taken from the Mattison & (^o. mine 

 on the gentle slope of ano])long rounded hill, some 300 feet in heig"ht, 

 situated in the suburbs of AltaviUe. a mile or more northwest from 

 the important mining town of Angels Cam]). This shaft is still open, 

 a roonn' rectangular well some 130 feet deep, cut in beds of compact, 

 tenacious, volcanic rock and underl3'ing strata of varying character, 

 and has undergone little change in the thirty-three years that have 

 passed since the reported finding of the skull. A road once passed 

 the mine and continued around the hill. ])ut it is now nearly obliterated, 

 and all traces of l)uildings ar(> gon<' from the slope, which is diversified 

 only by occasional old mine dumjjs and a growth of scrul)))y trees. It 

 was my intention to descend into the shaft and examine the formations, 

 but there was no time to spare for erecting the necessary windlass. It 

 is important that the formations at the depth from which the skull is 

 said to have come should be examined for comparison with the material 

 adhering to and partially filling the skull. 



Wliltneifs account of 1/ie skuJI. — According to Whitney's account 

 the skull was taken from the shaft of Mattison & Go's, mine in Feb- 

 ruary, 18<!0. Mr. Mattison, with his own hands, took the skull from 

 near the bottom of a bed of gravel 130 feet from the surface and 

 within a few feet of the bed rock — the crystalline slates in which 

 the Tertiary river had carved its channel. It was ''lying- on the 

 side of the channel [of the Tertiary river] with a mass of driftwood, 

 as if it had been deposited there by an eddy of the stn^am, and 

 afterwards covered over in the deposit of gravel by which bed No. 8 

 was formed.'' 



Figure 5 embodies the essential features of a section obtained by 

 Mr. Edward Hughes, of Stockton, in connection with an unpublished 

 pajoer on the Calaveras skull, written by Dr. A. S. Hudson. It seems 

 to correspond in ever^^ essential feature with the section published by 

 Whitney and with a section furnished me. together with photographs 

 of implements and human and animal remains from the region, by 

 Mr. K. E. C. Stearns, of Los Angeles. 



According to Whitney, Mr. Mattison did not recognize the object 

 as a skull when taken from the gravel, ])ut '-thought it to be a piece 

 of the root of a tree." Mr. Scribner also stated that when the skull 

 was brought to him '"it was so embedded and inerusted with earthy 

 and stony material that he did not recognize what it was." Mr. Mat- 



