HUMAN KEMAINS IN THE GRAVELS. 



263 



hardly possible to escape the inference that the human race existed before the disap>pearance of these 

 animals [the mastodon and elephant] from the region which was once so thickly inhabited by them." 

 The bones and relics found by Mr. Cannell were from a depth of about ninety feet below the 

 surface. 



Mr. Voy, several years later, obtained abundant corroborative evidence of the above statement 

 from various parties in the vicinity of Gold Springs. The following is an extract from his notes 

 on the subject furnished to the writer : " A wagon-load of bones of mastodon and other large 

 animals was destroyed by a fire here, some years ago. In close proximity to these were found 

 numerous stone implements at various times, and at different depths. A very interesting mortar 

 which was discovered here is made of hard granite, and is ornamented on the outside with diago- 

 nal markings, about three quarters of an inch deep and half an inch wide. This mortar is thirty- 

 seven and a half inches in circumference, weighing some thirty pounds. It was found in the year 

 1863, near other relics and animal remains, imbedded in auriferous gravel mixed with calcareous 

 tufa, at a depth of about sixteen feet beneath the surface." Some distance below this — in Gold 

 Springs Gulch — other relics were found, one of which is in Mr. Voy's collection. It is a large 

 oval, shallow stone dish, fifty-three inches in circumference and weighing about forty pounds. This 

 was found, in 1862, in auriferous gravel beneath an accumulation of about twenty feet of calca- 

 reous tufa. Among the relics obtained at this locality are certain discoidal stones, from throe to 

 four inches in diameter, and about an inch and a half thick, concave on both sides, with perforated 

 centre. Some of these implements are made of granite, others of sandstone. The purpose for 

 which they were used it seems not easy to make out. 



At Kincaid Flat, famous as a locality of animal remains,* stone mortars and pestles have been 

 found in the auriferous detritus at various depths below the surface, up to twenty feet, as is stated. 

 Some of these are in Mr. Voy's collection, as also certain implements supposed by him to have 

 been intended to be used in connection with a bow, for enabling the hand to get a better grasp of 

 the weapon. 



On Woods' Creek, in various years from 1862 to 1865, numerous fossil remains of the mastodon, 

 elephant, and other animals were found, and with them stone implements of different kinds. 

 Among those was a large stone dish, or platter, as well as mortars. The depth at which these 

 objects were found varied from twenty to forty feet. The same statement may be repeated with 

 regard to other localities in tins vicinity ; as, for instance, Springfield and Columbia. On Mormon 

 Creek similar discoveries were made during the years from 1851 to 1865. It is not necessary to 

 delay longer on this class of occurrences. It may bo stated, in general, that all about Sonora the 

 auriferous gravels which have been worked as placer mines, and the material filling the crevices in 

 the limestone belt, already described, have in a great number of localities been found to bo filled 

 with the bones of animals of extinct species ; and that with these many relics of the works of hu- 

 man hands have also been discovered, at various depths, down to about a hundred feet.t 



We come now to a more interesting branch of the .subject, namely, those facts which Indicate 

 the existence of man in this region previous to the basaltic overflow forming the capping of Table 

 Mountain, so often referred, to in the previous pages. There are a number of occurrences of this 

 kind, and they will bo discussed in the order in which they have been brought to the writer's 



, . JO 



notice. 



* A photograph sent by Mr. Voy, and examined since page 252 was in type, shows— as the writer 

 believes — that Mastodon obscurus has also been found at Kincaid Flat. The photograph is labelled " Two 

 fossil mastodon teeth found in 1861 with numerous others ; also elephant, camel, and horse remains, and 

 stone mortars and other stone relics, imbedded in auriferous gravel, about sixteen feet below the surface, at 



Kincaid Flat, Tuolumne County, California. In Voy's Cabinet." 



t A large number of these relics are now preserved in the Museum of the University of California, 



which contains not only the Voy Collection, but the materials of the Geological Survey/ They have all 



been examined by the writer, and there can be no possible doubt as to their being the work of human 

 hands. 



