HUMAN REMAINS EST THE GRAVELS. 



259 



familiar to geologists, and it may now be considered as generally admitted 

 by them that the human race was living in Europe during the later Pleis- 

 tocene age. The great question now is, How far back can man and his 

 works be traced ? and in regard to this point a large store of reputed facts 

 are gradually being brought together, and most geologists are ready and 

 willing to examine them and discuss their authenticity, the time having 

 gone by when they were contemptuously thrown aside as conflicting with 

 one of the fundamental ideas of the science. The following pages are 

 offered, therefore, as a contribution to the history of prehistoric man, as 

 setting forth the results obtained during several years of geological work 

 in California, — years in which this subject was not made a special object 

 of research, but when facts which came under our observation were ex- 

 amined into, so far as time and circumstances admitted, and which, taken 

 together, form a considerable body of material. 



Before entering upon the setting forth of what has been collected relating 

 to the antiquity of man in California, it will be desirable to say a few words 

 in regard to the nature of the evidence presented and the manner in which 

 it has been collected. 



It will have become abundantly evident, from what has been stated in the 



■ 



preceding pages, that most of the material collected bearing on such a ques- 

 tion as the one now under discussion must be expected to be of a very frag- 

 mentary character. The nature of the auriferous deposits is such as to 

 preclude, except in a few specially flivored situations, any hope of finding a 

 large number of fossil remains in an undisturbed position. Objects found in 

 the gravel must, of course, have been subjected to the same long-contin- 

 ued course of abrasion and transportation as the material in which they 

 are imbedded has undergone. It has already been mentioned how of 

 several species of animals found in the auriferous detrital deposits only a 

 single tooth has as yet been obtained, while others are represented by two 

 or three fragments of teeth or bones at most. The finer-grained beds, such 

 as pipe-clay and sand, are usually unproductive in gold, and therefore rarely 

 worked except in cases of necessity. But it is in these that one Avould 

 expect to find remains in the most perfect condition and in the largest 

 quantity, other circumstances being favorable. 



There is another point which must be mentioned in this connection, and 

 especially as bearing on the question why so much of the evidence pre- 

 sented in relation to the antiquity of man dates back quite a number of 



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