AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN IN CALIFORNIA. 47 1 



(6) Objects of art from the auriferous gravels are said to be of the 

 most primitive character, and, in hirge measure, peculiar to the gravels. 

 When critically examined, however, they are found to lielong to tne 

 polished-stone stage and to duplicate modern implements in every 

 essential respect. They are such as may have fallen in from Indian 

 camp sites or been carried in by the Indians themselves. They are 

 made from varieties of stone belonging to formations ranging from the 

 oldest to the youngest found in the district, and have been shaped by 

 the ordinary processes employed by our aborigines. They evidently 

 served purposes identical with the corresponding implements of our 

 Indian tribes. 



(7) None of these objects show evidence of unusual age, and none 

 bear traces of the wear and tear that would come from transportation 

 in Tertiary torrents. These striking facts relating to the condition of 

 the human and cultural remains confirm and enforce the impressions 

 received from a study of the geological and biological history of the 

 region. 



(8) The case against antiquity is strengthened again by a study of 

 the recent history of California. All, or nearly all, of the phenomena 

 relied upon to prove antiquity can readih' be accounted for without 

 assuming a Tertiary man. Indian tribes have occupied the region for 

 centuries. They buried their dead in pits, caves, and deep ravines, 

 where the remains were readily covered by accumulations of debris or 

 of calcareous matter deposited by water. As soon as mining open-a- 

 tions began, the region became noted as a place of skulls. 



(9) Coupled with the above is the fact that no othcu' country- in the 

 world has been so extensively and profoundly dug over as this same 

 auriferous gravel region. The miners worked out the ossuaries and, 

 at the same time, undermined the village sites, and thousands of the 

 native implements and utensils were introduced into the mines and 

 became intermingled with the gravels. Implements and utensils may 

 also have been introduced into the deep mines ])y their owners who 

 were helpers in the mining work. 



(10) When these objects began to be observed by the min(M-s. indi- 

 viduals interested in relics commenced making collections, hut neither 

 miners nor collectors understood the need of disci'imination, the tact 

 that the objects came f'-om the mines being to them satisfactory evi- 

 dence that they belonged originally in the gravels. 



(11) Again, it is possible that deception was often practiced. A 

 mining camp is the natural home of practical joking, and the notion 

 that finds of human relics in the gravels tended to excite heated dis- 

 cussion would spread quickly from camp to camp until the wiiole 

 region would ))e att'ected. 



(12) The testimony ft)r anti(iuity is greatly we:ikened hy th(^ facts 

 (1) that the finds on which it is based were nuule almost w holly by 



