68 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 60 



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

 cussion would spread quickly from camp to camp until the whole 

 region would be att'ected. 



(12) The testimony for antiquity is greatly weakened by the facts 

 (1) that the finds on which it depends were made almost wholly by 

 inexpert observers, and (2) that all observations were recorded at 

 second hand. Nothing short of abundant exi)ei't testi- 

 mony will convince the critical mind that a Tertiary 

 race of men using symmetrically shaped and beautiful 

 implements, wearing necklaces of wampum and pol- 

 ished beads of marble or travertine bored accurately 

 with revolving drills, and having a religious system so 

 highly developed that at least two forms of ceremonial 

 stones well knowm among the Indian tribes were in 

 use, could have occupied the American Continent long 

 enough to develoj) this nuirked degree of culture with- 

 out leaving some really distinctive traces of its exist- 

 ence, something different fi'om the ordinai'v belongings 

 of our |)resent aboiigines. 



Although, as thus sunnnarized, the writer finds the 

 weight of evidence ratlier against than f<n" the great 

 antiquity of man in California, he does not believe that 

 the evidence recorded by Whitney and others should be 

 disregarded. Certain portions of the deep gravels appear to have 

 yielded traces of human occupancy of the region during the forma- 

 tion of these dei)Osits and science can not afford to let the matter rest 

 until their age is determined and the exact manner of inclusion is 

 known; meantime chronologists can be on their guard against too 

 hasty acceptance of conclusions not absolutely warranted by the 

 evidence. 



In 1882 Professor McGee obtained an obsidian knife blade (fig. 



30) from bedded deposits of white marl of supposed 



The Nevada Ob- pleistocene age in Walker Valley, Nevada. The 



sidian ^ . , . ■ ■ 



specimen was seemingly in situ at the depth of 25 

 feet in the formation. 



It is of massive obsidian, or volcanic glass, and quite free from superficial 

 incrustation or disintegration. In material, size, .eenoral form, mode of chip- 

 ping, and fresliness in appearance it is undistiuguisliable from the arrow 

 points in use to-day by the Piute Indians of the vicinity. It should be men- 

 tioned that this fresh aspect is paralleled by that of the fossil l)ones found in 

 the same stratum of white sUt. These bones ;ire perl'ectly wMte, not at all 

 mineralized and, wlien found in fragments not readily identifiable, may easily 

 be discriminated from long-weathered recent bones by their greater porosity 

 and less weight. 



The upper series of T>abontan deposits within which the obsidian was found 

 are classed as Pliocene (Equus beds) by tlie vertebrate paleontologist and 



Fig. 30. Obsidian 

 blade from sap- 

 posed ricistoccno 

 deposits, Nevada, 

 (McGec.) Q) 



