holmes] 



ABOmOTNAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PAET I 



65 



(1) Th-^ skull presents no siffns of having belon.ced to an inferior race. In 

 its breadth it agrees with the other crania from California, except those of the 

 Diggers, but surpasses them in the other particulars in which comparisons 

 have been made. This is especially obvious in the greater prominence of the 

 forehead and the capacity of its chamber. (2) In so far as it differs in dimen- 

 sions from the other crania from California, it approaches the Esquimaux.^ 



(G) Objects of art from the auriferous gravels have been de- 

 scribed as exceptionally primitive in character and in large measure 

 peculiar to the gravels. When critically examined, however, they 

 are found to belong to the polished-stone stage and to duplicate 

 modern implements in every essential respect (figs. 25-27). They 



Fig. 23. Types of mortars and pestles said to have come from the auriferous gravels, (i) 



are such as may have fallen in from Indian camp sites or been car- 

 ried into caverns 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 Avear and tear that would come from transporta- 

 tion in Tertiary torrents, nor can any reason be given why they 

 should have been included in the beds of torrential rivers. These 

 striking facts relative to the condition of the human and cultural 

 remains confirm and enforce the impressions of recentness deduced 

 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 



1 Whitney, Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada, p. 273 ; Ilrdlicka, Slielctal Re- 

 mains Suggesting or Attributed to Early Man in North America. 



