vin THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN NORTH AMERICA 445 



inhabit any part of the North American continent. Besides 

 these we have a tolerably abundant series of vegetable remains, 

 well preserved in the white clays formed from the volcanic 

 ash. These comprise forty-nine species of deciduous trees and 

 shrubs, all distinct from those now living, while not a single 

 coniferous leaf or fruit has been found, although pines and firs 

 are now the prevalent trees all over the sierra. Professor 

 Lesquereaux, who has described these plants, considers them 

 to be of Pliocene age with some affinities to Miocene ; while 

 Professor Whitney, the State geologist of California, considers 

 that the animal remains indicate at least a similar antiquity. 



These abundant animal and vegetable remains have mostly 

 been discovered in the process of gold-mining, the gravel and 

 sand of the old river-beds preserved under the various flows 

 of basalt being especially rich in gold. Numerous shafts have 

 been sunk and underground tunnels excavated in the auriferous 

 gravels and clays, and the result has been the discovery not 

 only of extinct animals and plants, but of works of art and 

 human remains. The former have been found in nine different 

 counties in the same gravels in which the extinct animals 

 occur, while in no less than five widely separate localities, 

 underneath the ancient lava flows, remains of man himself 

 have been discovered. In order to show the amount of this 

 evidence, and to enable us to appreciate the force or weakness 

 of the objections with which, as usual, it has been received, a 

 brief enumeration of these discoveries will be made. We will 

 begin with the works of art as being the most numerous. 



Works of Art in the Auriferous Gravels 

 In Tuolumne County from 1862 to 1865 stone mortars 

 and platters were found in the auriferous gravel along with 

 bones and teeth of mastodon ninety feet below the surface, 

 and a stone muller was obtained in a tunnel driven under 

 Table Mountain. In 1870 a stone mortar was found at a 

 depth of sixty feet in gravel under clay and " cement," as the 

 hard clay with vegetable remains (the old volcanic ash) is 

 called by the miners. In Calaveras County from 1860 to 

 1869 many mortars and other stone implements were found 

 in the gravels under lava beds, and in other auriferous gravels 

 and clays at a depth of 150 feet. In Amador County stone 



