458 AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 



tions are badly fractured. Professor Whitney expresses his views as 

 to how the specimen came to he thus rudely fractured, and as to ^iub- 

 sequent events in its history, in the following words: 



"The skull was unquestionably dug up somewhere, and had unques- 

 tionably been subjected to quite a series of peculiar conditions. In 

 the lirst place, it had been broken, and broken in such a manner as to 

 indicate great violence, as the fractures go through the thick(\'^t and 

 heaviest parts of the skull; again, the evidence of violent and pro- 

 tracted motion, as seen in the manner in which the various bones are 

 wedged into the hollow and internal parts of the skull, as, for instance, 

 the bones of the foot under the malar bone. The appearance of the 

 skull was something such as would be expected to result from its hav- 

 ing been swept, with many other bones, from the place where it was 

 originally deposited down the shallow but violent current of a stream, 

 where it would be exposed to violent blows against the bowlders lying 

 in its bed. During this passage it was smashed, and fragments of the 

 bones occurring with it were thrust into all the cavities where they 

 could lodge. It then came to rest somewhere, in a position where 

 water charged with lime salts had access to it, and on a bed of aurifer- 

 ous gravel. While it lay there the mass on which it rested was cemented 

 to it by the calcareous matter deposited around the skull, and thus the 

 base of hard mixed tufa and peblSlcs which was attached to it when it 

 was placed in the writer's hands was formed. At this time, too, the 

 snail crept in under the malar bone, and there died. Su))S(Miuently to 

 this the whole was enveloped by a deposit of gravel, wliich did not 

 afterwards become thoroughly consolidated, and which, therefore, was 

 easily removed by the gentlemen who tirst cleaned up the specimen in 

 question, thev onlv nmioving the looser gravel which surrounded it" 

 (p. 272). 



In cutting away the incrusting material several fragments of l)ones 

 were found — some that might have l)elonged to the same indiviflual to 

 whom the skull pertained, while others evidently belonged to a smaller 

 person. Besides these there were bones of some small mammal, a small 

 snail shell of the species Helix mormotnmi^ a small wampum or shell 

 bead, and some ])its of charcoal. 



Chemical examinations by Mr. Sharpless developed the fact that 

 nearly all the organic matter of the bone had disappeared and a large 

 portion of the phosphate of lime had been replaced by the carbonate, 

 indicating a fossilized condition; a trace only of organic matter 

 remained. 



From Dr. Wyman's report, publisTied in Whitney's paper, we learn: 



"First. That the skull presents no signs of having belonged to an 

 inferior race. In its breadth it agrees with the other crania from Cali- 

 fornia, except those of the Diggers, but surpasses them in the other 

 particulars in which comparisons have been made. This is especially 

 obvious in the greater prominence of the forehead and the capacity of 

 its chamber. Second. In so far as it differs in dimensions from the 

 other crania from California it approaches the Eskimo" (p. 273). 



Portions of the above statements will be referred to in some detail 

 farther on. 



