272 



THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



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time, and that ho would give notice whenever he did so, and that a full opportunity should be 

 afforded of making a careful inspection of the vicinity. 



The appearance of the skull when it came into the writer's hands, and especially its appearance 

 when obtained by Mr. Scribner, whose statements may be considered as beyond suspicion, shows 

 that this is not an ordinary skull picked up at random in order that it might be palmed off as a 

 curiosity on an unsuspecting " Eastern geologist," or even an "anti-Scriptural miner." The skull 

 was unquestionably dug up somewhere, and had unquestionably been subjected to quite a series of 

 peculiar conditions. In the first place it had been broken, and broken in such a manner as to 

 indicate great violence, as the fractures go through the thickest and heaviest parts of the skull ; 

 again, the evidence of violent and protracted motion, as seen in the manner in which the various 

 bones were wedged into the hollow and internal parts of the skull, as, for instance, the bones of 

 the foot under the malar bone. The appearance of the skull was something such as would bo 

 expected to result from its having been swept, with many other bones, from the place where it was 

 originally deposited down the shallow but violent current of a stream, where it would be exposed to 

 violent blows against the boulders lying in its bed. During this passage it was smashed, and frag- 

 ments of the bones occurring with it were thrust into all the cavities where they could lodge. It 

 then came to rest somewhere, in a position where water charged with lime salts had access to it, 

 and on a bed of auriferous gravel. While it lay there the mass on which it rested was cemented 

 to it by the calcareous matter deposited around the skull, and thus the base of hard mixed tufa 

 and pebbles which was attached to it when it was placed in the writer's hands was formed. At 

 this time, too, the snail crept in under the malar bone, and there died. Subsequently to this the 

 whole was enveloped by a deposit of gravel, which did not afterwards become thoroughly consoli- 

 dated, and which, therefore, was easily removed by the gentlemen who first cleaned up the speci- 

 men in question, they only removing the looser gravel which surrounded it. 



Now, such is the condition of things and the chain of events through which the skull passed, 

 as vouched for by its own appearance when it left Dr. Jones's hands, and by the perfectly reli- 

 able statements of Messrs. Jones and Scribner. 



How does this compare with Mr. Mattison's statements as to the position of the skull 1 And this 

 is a question of great importance, as, if this gentleman told one story and the skull another, we 

 should not doubt which authority to accept. If, on the other hand, there is no discrepancy in the 

 evidence thus furnished by the dead and the living, then we have here a very strong corroborative 

 link in the chain of testimony, going to show the genuineness of the find. 



Mr. Mattison told me that he with his own hands took the skull from near the bottom of bed 

 No. 8, in the section given on. page 269, and that it was found lying on the side of the chan- 

 nel with a mass of drift-wood, as if it had been deposited there by an eddy of the stream, and 

 afterwards covered over in the deposit of gravel by which bed No. 8 was formed. Now here seems 

 to be a very satisfactory coincidence between the statements of Mr. Mattison and the facts revealed 

 by the condition of the skull itself. Indeed, the coincidence is as complete as could be desired, 

 and in view of these facts it seems very difficult not to accept the statements made by the gentle- 

 man in question as authentic. 



We have the independent testimony of three witnesses, two of whom were previously known to 

 the writer as men of intelligence and veracity, while in regard to the third there is no reason for 

 doubting his truthfulness, Each one of these gentlemen testifies to some points in the chain of 

 circumstantial evidence going to prove the genuineness of the find. No motive for deception on 

 the part of Mr. Mattison can be discovered, while the appearance of the skull itself bears strong, 

 though silent, testimony to the correctness of his story. 



The following is Dr. Wyman's notice of the craniological peculiarities of the Calaveras skull : 

 " The volume of the frontal region is large, so that if the skull were viewed from above, the zygo- 

 matic arches would be nearly concealed. As a large part of the occiput is destroyed, it is uncertain 

 whether the head was long or broad. The face is somewhat deformed, the left orbit being smaller, 

 and the left cheek higher than the right, thus giving the whole an unsymmetrical appearance. The 





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