holmes] 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN" ANTIQUITIES PART I 



61 



Notwithstcincling the adverse attitude at once assumed by skeptics, 

 had not Professor Bingiuun made a second visit to the spot witli the 

 most commendable purpose of determinin*^- before it was too hite the 

 exact truth regarding the observations, the literature of American 

 chronology would lui^e been burdened with a most lamentable error, 

 willingly accepted and perpetuated by the writers of books at home 

 and abroad. The positive determination of the geologist would have 

 carried conviction to many minds. The citation of these facts is not 

 intended as in any sense derogatory to the explorers concei-ned. On 

 the contrary, Professor Bingham is deserving of the highest com- 

 mendation for his prompt action in renewing the search, thus estab- 



California 

 dence 



Fig. 22. Section of Table Mountain showing mines penetrating to old river channels. The position of 



the King pestle is shown. 



lishing the truth in place of error. It is the probability that many 

 such faulty observations are embodied undetected in archeological 

 literature that deserves to be emphasized. 



In North America during the middle decades of the nineteenth 



century a most imposing body of evidence relating to 

 ^^' the Tertiary origin of man was collected by the State 



Geological Survey of California in the auriferous 

 gravel region.^ JMiners working the vast deposits of gold-bearing- 

 gravels, assigned in part to Tertiary times, reported the discovery 

 of various artifacts in the diggings, not only in the deep gravels but 

 entombed in these gravels beneath heavy sheets of lava of Tertiary 

 age (fig. 22). This evidence has been the subject of most careful 

 reexamination and revision, and, although it is imposing in bulk and 

 was accepted as convincing by Professor Whitney, director of the 

 survey, the conclusions draAvn are questioned by those who realize the 

 extreme danger of too ready acceptance of observations of geological 

 phenomena by inexperienced observers, persons not prepared to 

 understand the possible intrusion of recent artifacts from the surface 

 into the deep diggings or to consider other possible risks of error. 

 After visiting the principal sites of the alleged discoveries, the 

 writer prepared an exhaustive review of the evidence.^ A brief 



1 Whitney, Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California. 

 ^Holmes, Revision of the Evidence Relating to Auriferous Gravel Man in California. 



