64 



BUREAU OF AMERTCATiT ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 60 



of Dubois, which may be regarded only as possibly an incipient form 

 of human creature. Some of the finds reported indicate a Middle 

 Tertiary people well advanced in the elements of culture; and cul- 

 ture, especially in the earlier stages, is necessarily of exceedingly 

 slow growth. The Pltheeanthroims of California would have to be 

 looked for somewhere in the early Tertiary if not in a preceding 

 period. The burdens thus thrown on the auriferous gravel evidence 

 are enormous. 



(3) The assumption that a Tertiary man could have survived to 

 the present time in California may well be held in abeyance. The 

 physical and biological changes in the region have been profound 



Fig. 24. The Calaveras skull, said to have been taken from Tertiary gravels at a deptli of 130 feet. 



and far-reaching. The western half of the continent has been twice 

 or thrice remodeled since Middle Tertiary times, and every known 

 species of plant and all species of the higher forms of animal life 

 of that time are said to have been obliterated. Evidence based on 

 random and inexpert observations is not sufficient to establish such 

 a proposition. 



(4) Could it be admitted that man did survive throughout the ages 

 and continental transformations, it appears quite improbable that 

 his physical characters and his culture should have remained un- 

 changed. It seems equally unlikely that a modern race could have 

 sjn-ung up duplicating the man of a million years before in every 

 essential particular. 



(5) Examination of the human relics reported from the gravels 

 fails to give support to the claim of antiquity. The fossilization, 

 so called, of the osseous remains, upon which so much stress has been 

 laid, may have taken place in comparatively recent times. The 

 crania recovered are practically identical in character with those 

 of the present tribes of California (fig. 24). 



