AURIFEROUy GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



457 



tison, however, seems to have considered the curious g-ravel -cove red 

 kimpof sufficient interest to note carefully the conditions under which 

 it was found, "'as if deposited in the eddy of a stream." and soon after- 

 wards carried it in a bag to Angels, presenting it to Mr. Scribner, mer- 

 chant, and agent of Wells-Fargo & Co. It was not until a clerk in Mr. 

 Scribner's store, probably Mr. Matthews, cleaned oti' a portion of the 

 incrusting material that anyone suspected that the object was a human 

 skull. Soon after this the skull was sent to Dr. William Jones, at 

 Murphys, 12 miles away. The Doctor was an enthusiastic collector 

 of natural-history specimens, and, regarding the skull as having more 

 than ordinary interest, wrote to the office of the State geological sur- 

 vey in San Francisco, describing the specimen. A few days \ntvy. on 

 June 29, at the request of Mr. William M. Gabb, paleontologist of the 

 survey, the Doctor forwarded it to San Francisco. 



Professor Whitney soon afterwards visited Calav^eras County and 

 proceeded to make careful inquiries into the origin of the skull. He 

 visited Mr. Mattison and others, obtaining the statements emljodied in 



Fig. ."..—section I )f the deposits exposed in Mattison mine, Balil Mountuin. "The skull is said t<> have 



been found in stratum No. s. 



his report, and became convinced that the skull had been foiuid pre- 

 cisely as described by Mr. Mattison, and that its subseciuent history 

 was correctly given I)}' Mr. Scribner and Dr. Jones. 



When delivered to Professor Whitney the base of the skull was 

 "embedded in a conglomerate mass of ferruginous earth, watenvorn 

 pebbles of nuich altered volcanic rock, calcareous tufa, and fragments 

 of bones. This mixed material covered the whole base of the skull 

 and tilled the left temporal fossa, concealing the whole of the jaw. A 

 thin calcareous incrustation appears to have covered the whole skull 

 when found; portions of it had been scaled off, probably in cleaning 

 away the other material attached to the ])ase" (PI. XV. ^0- Together 

 the two eminent professors carefully chiseled away the foreign matter 

 adhering to its base, so as to expose the natural surface of the skull, 

 leaving it in its pr(>sent state (PI. XV, h). The skull was found to 

 be that of a very old person, the t(^eth being gone and the alveoli 

 nearly absorbinl. The lower jaw is gone and the cranium is far from 

 perfect; portions of the occiput are missing and the remaining por- 



