AURIFEROUS ,GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 459 



Tnformatimi from local sources. — During my short visit to tho district 

 I found only a few men who could claim personal knowledge of the 

 skull and of the people most directly concerned in its discovery and 

 immediately subsequent history. Scribner and Jones are dead and 

 others have removed from the district. At Big Trees, IS miles al)ove 

 Murphys, I found Mr. J. L. Sperry, who kept the hotel at Murphys 

 and was Whitney's host while the latter was visiting that section. He 

 proved to be a good friend of the Professor and a believer in the cor- 

 rectness of his views regarding the skull. His hotel faced the ottice of 

 Dr. Jones, to whom the skull was sent from Scribner's, and he told 

 me that one day as he was standing in the door of his hotel Dr. Jones 

 came out of his office opposite, and with characteristic imprecations 

 threw a broken skull into the middle of the street. Called upon to 

 explain, the Doctor said that the skull had been brought to him as a 

 relic of great antiquity, but that he had just discovered col)webs in it, 

 and concluded that he had been made the subject of one of Scribner's 

 practical jokes. Afterwards the Doctor picked up the specimen again 

 and carried it into his office, sa3'ing that perhaps he had been too hasty 

 and that he would give it further consideration. Shortly afterwards 

 the skull was sent to San Francisco, and a little later Whitne}' returned 

 to Murphys and proceeded to make inquiries as to its origin. Mr. 

 Speriy drove him to Angels Camp to see Mattison and to obtain from 

 him a statement regarding the discovery of the skull. The statement 

 was o))tained, and satisfied Whitney as to the genuineness of the tind. 

 The opposition to the evidence was, he said, mainly the result of 

 religious prejudices and, he thought, had no solid foundation. 



Others at Murphys were familiar with the story, often told and 

 retold, but all were unbelievers and took great pleasure in telling of 

 the practical jokes perpetrated by Scribner and his coterie upon their 

 friends, and upon Dr. Jones in particular. In general the versions of 

 the story of the skull were much alike, showing a common origin, but 

 ha^'ing individual variations characteristic of memory recitals. I 

 talked Avith J. L. N. Shephard, C. A. Curtis, W. J. Mercer, E. H. 

 Schaeffle, and others well informed on the events of the early days ; 

 and the statement by Mr. Joseph Shephard, a prominent local engi- 

 neer, made in writing to Mr. H. W. Turner, of the United States 

 (leological Survey, may serve to indicate the general trend of these 

 accounts and the character of the persons connected with the stoiy of 

 the skull. His statement is as follows : 



"When the skull was found in ]Mr. Madison's (:\lathewson's) shaft, 

 there lived in Angels three men, John Scribner (merchant), William 

 Coddington (ditch owner), and Ross B. Coons (saloon keeper). In 

 Murphy's there lived William (Jriffiths (ditch superintendent) and Dr. 

 Jones, all good friends one with another, and all owners ui the Union 

 Water Companv's ditch, except prol)al)ly Coons. (iritHths delivered 

 the skull to Dr.' Jones, how long after INIadison (Math(>wson) found it 



