22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 
about 130 feet from the surface, where there was a layer of gravel. 
This gravel lay beneath seven alternate layers of lava and gravel, 
and dates from about the middle Tertiary period. The skull had. 
adhering to it, or at least to the lower part of its face and to its base, 
a “conglomerate mass of ferruginous earth, water-worn pebbles of 
much altered volcanic rock, calcareous tufa, and fragments of bones,” 
and “a thin calcareous incrustation appears to have covered the 
whole skull when found.” (Whitney, page 268.) On chemical exam- 
ination by Mr. Sharples, the specimen was found to “ have lost nearly 
all its organic matter,” and “a large portion of the phosphate of 
lime had ‘been replaced by the carbonate (phosphate of lime 33.79, 
carbonate of lime 62.03 parts in 100). In other words, it was in a 
fossilized condition.” 
After the lapse of more than two years from the date of its dis- 
covery the skull came indirectly into the possession of Professor 
Whitney, at that time State Geologist of California, and was finally 
placed in the Peabody Museum. The specimen has received much 
attention in the press. The archeological aspect of the find has been 
dealt with by Prof. W. H. Holmes in two reports,’ which give ac- 
counts not only of the skull, but of all the reported California gravel 
finds indicating the presence of early man, and their well-substan- 
tiated conclusions should be consulted in this connection. As to the 
physical characteristics of the skull, the only original data extant are 
those of Professor Wyman, included in the report of J. D. Whitney. 
There are three subsequent accounts, by E. Schmidt,’ J. Kollmann,? 
and George A. Dorsey,’ respectively; but all of these are based on 
Wyman’s measurements and on study of the illustrations of the skull, 
not on personal examination of the specimen. This deficiency will be 
remedied in this paper so far as possible. 
PuysicaL CHARACTERS 
The specimen (plate 1) is rather heavy (15} ounces=446 grams), 
though its weight is due mainly to adhering mineral matter. It is a 
very defective skull, lacking nearly the whole occipital, both parietals, 
the right temporal, parts of the left temporal, sphenoid, and superior 
“Tt is nowhere stated on the authority of the finder or of Professor Whitney that the 
skull was actually dug out from the gravel. Mr. Mattison, who found it in the mine, 
states simply (Whitney, p. 268) that “he took the skull from his shaft, in February, 
1866, with some pieces of wood found near it.” 
> Preliminary Revision of the Evidence relating to Auriferous Gravel Man in Califor- 
nia, American Anthropologist, n. s., I, 107-121, 614-645, 1899; Review of the Evidence 
relating to Auriferous Gravel Man in California, Smithsonian Report for 1899, 419-472, 
Washington, 1901. 
¢ Zur Urgeschichte Nordamerikas, Arch. f. Anthrop., V, 253-259, 1871-72; also in Die 
filtesten Spuren des Menschen in Nordamerika, 48 et seq., Hamburg, 1887. 
4 Hohes Alter der Menschenrassen, Zeitschr. f. Ethnol., xvi, 185-191, 1884. 
© In Holmes’s Review of the Evidence relating to Auriferous Gravel Man in California, 
465-466. 
