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THE AURIFEROUS GEAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



In Dr. Snell's collection, previously mentioned, there were several objects which, were marked 

 as having come "from under Table Mountain." Among these was a human jaw, which was re- 

 peatedly examined by Mr. Voy and the writer. It was live and a half inches across from condyle 

 to condyle. a J^ear this," according to Mr. Voy, "were found several curious stone implements. 

 Among them was a piece of stone apparently designed as a handle for a bow. It was made of 

 silicious slate and had little notches at the end, which appear to have been formed for tying the 



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stone to the bow. There were also one or two spear heads, from six to eight inches long, and 

 several scoops or ladles, with well-shaped handles." In regard to most of these specimens it can 

 only be said that they were given to Dr. Snell by the miners as having been taken from under 

 Table Mountain. There was one object, however, of the locality of which more certain proof 

 could be furnished. This was a stone muller, or some kind of utensil which had apparently been used 

 for grinding. It was carefully examined by the writer, and recognized as unquestionably of arti- 

 ficial origin. In regard to this implement Dr. Snell informed the writer that he took it with his 

 own hands from a car-load of "dirt" coming out from under Table Mountain. Dr. Snell also, a 

 short time before his death, namely, in November, 1869, called the attention of Mr. G. A. Tread- 

 well, of Big Oak Flat, to this specimen, and informed him that " he took it from a tunnel under 

 Table Mountain, and that it was the only specimen he had of which he could say positively that 

 it came from under that formation." * 



Soon after the writer's communication to the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science at the Chicago meeting, in 18G8, of some of the principal facts connected with the dis- 

 covery of the " Calaveras skull," and when that remarkable relic had begun to be talked about a 

 good deal, he was informed by Dr. J. Wyman that there was in the Museum of the Natural His- 

 tory Society of Boston a small, fragment of a skull, which he had identified as being human, and 

 which bore the following label : " From a shaft in Table Mountain, 180 feet below the surface, in 

 gold drift, among rolled stones and near mastodon debris. Overlying strata of basaltic compact- 

 ness and hardness. Found July, 1857. Given to Eev. C. F. Winslow by Hon. Paul K. Hubbs, 

 August, 1857." It was also soon ascertained that a similar fragment of a human skull existed in 

 the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, with a similar label. And it ap- 

 peared that Eev. Mr. Winslow divided the specimen given him by Mr. Hubbs between the two 

 societies in the manner indicated. In Volume VI. of the Proceedings of the Boston Natural His- 

 tory Society, page 278, under the head of October 7, 1857, is a communication from Eev. Mr. 

 Winslow sent with the skull fragment, from which the following extract is made (date not given) : 



" I sent by a friend, who was going to Boston this morning, a precious relic of the human race of 

 earlier times, found recently in California, 180 feet below the surface of Table .Mountain. . . . My 

 friend Colonel Hubbs, whose gold claims in the mountains seem to have given him much knowledge 

 of this singular locality, writes that the fragment was brought up in pay-dirt (the miner's name for 

 the placer gold-drift) of the Columbia Claim, and that the various strata passed through in sinking 



the shaft consisted of volcanic formations exclusively." 



This find evidently excited no attention at all, as was natural at the time, especially as the 

 locality was so far removed ; indeed, the well- authenticated discoveries of Boucher de Perthes had, 

 in 1857, gained no credence in this country, as has already been mentioned. The writer, however, 

 on receiving the above information from Dr. Wyman, proceeded at once to investigate the matter. 

 Hon. Paul K. Hubbs was soon discovered to be a well-known citizen of Vallejo, California, and a 

 former State Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was kind enough to furnish to Gorham 

 Blake, Esq., at the writer's request, a full written statement of all the circumstances of the find, 

 the principal points of which he remembered perfectly. In a letter dated " Vallejo, November 23, 

 1868," he described the locality at considerable length ; and from the writer's own knowledge of 

 the place, added to that of Mr. Blake, who was familiar with the region and took great pains to 

 make himself acquainted with the mining operations formerly carried on there, we were able to 



* Quoted from a letter from Mr. G. A. Treadwell to the writer, dated Stockton, February 16, 1870. 



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