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THE AUEIFEKOTJS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



Geneva, Wal. County, Wisconsin, November 2, 1870. 



Dear Sir, — In accordance with a wish expressed in your letter of June last, I would state the par- 

 ticulars of the discovery of human hones on Clay Hill,* El Dorado County, California. While engaged 

 in the business of mining, in the spring of 1853, I purchased an interest in a claim on this hill, on condi- 

 tion that it prospected sufficiently well to warrant working it. The owner and myself accordingly pro- 

 ceeded to sink a shaft for the purpose of working it. It was while doing so that we discovered the bones 

 to which you refer * Clay Hill is one of a series of elevations which constitute the water-shed between 

 Placerville Creek and Big Canon, and is capped with a stratum of basaltic lava, some eight feet thick. 

 Beneath this there are some thirty feet of sand, gravel, and clay. The country-rock is slightly capped on 

 this, as on most of the elevations, the slope being towards the centre of the hill. Resting on the rock and 

 extending about two feet above it, was a dense stratum of clay. It was in this clay that we came across 

 the bones. While emptying the tub, I saw some pieces of material which on examination I discovered 

 were pieces of bones ; and, on further search, I found the scapula, clavicle, and parts of the first, second, 

 and third ribs of the right side of a human skeleton. They were quite firmly cemented together ; but 

 on exposure to the air began to crumble. We made no further discoveries, and indeed I did not then 

 take sufficient interest in such subjects to make any efforts in that direction. I preserved this part, and 

 presented it to Dr. Harvey of Placerville. I did think it of interest, as showing the great age of the human 

 race. No one who should give the slightest attention to the physical configuration of the country, but 

 must be struck with the almost infinity of years which have elapsed since the being whose skeleton 1 had 

 found was animated with life. It must be evident to every unprejudiced mind that the auriferous drift 

 was deposited long anterior to the present drainage system. And then, when we look at the great depth 

 which the rivers have worn through the drift, and into the rocky sides of the mountains, in some places 

 nearly two thousand feet, the mind is lost in wonder in contemplating the time which has elapsed since 

 man was first born into the world. 



Begging pardon for the length of this, I remain very truly yours, 



[Signed] 



II. II. Boyce, M. D. 



In reply to further inquiries made by the writer, Dr. Boyce stated that there could be no mis- 

 take about the character of the bones, and that he had made a special study of human anatomy. 

 His description of the geology of Clay Hill agrees, in the main, with that given by Mr. Goodyear, 

 who states that the deposit on the bed-rock was from twenty-five to thirty feet thick, all but the 

 lower five feet consisting of "mountain gravel," a local name for the volcanic material capping the 

 hills in that vicinity, t Dr. Boyce's statement carries with it the weight necessarily attaching to 

 the observations of an educated man, evidently accustomed to observe and reflect on what lie saw 

 in the remarkable region in which he was temporarily engaged in mining. The bones themselves 

 seem to have disappeared, as no trace of them could be found at Placerville, although there was 

 still some remembrance of them in the minds of persons who had seen them after they had been 



taken out from the diggings. 



Similar occurrences are reported from a place bearing the somewhat characteristic name of Soap- 

 weed, and situated near Placerville. 



Spanish Flat is reported as having been a prolific locality of stone implements, which were dug 

 up at various points and at a depth of from ten to sixteen feet beneath the surface. These relics 

 are described by Mr. Yoy as consisting of "tools, kitchen utensils, and other indestructible traces 

 of man's presence and activity." 



Among them were 



oval stones with continuous grooves cut 



around them, not transversely, as in the case of the stone hammers so common on Lake Superior, 

 but around the outer edge of the flat ovals. The use to which they were put it is not easy to make 

 out. Besides these, there were other curious implements of which the use is unknown to the 

 writer, unless possibly they may have served as ornaments. Mr. Voy thinks it more likely that 

 they were intended as handles for bows, being hollow on one side, as if to fit the weapon, and 

 convex on the other to give the hand a better grasp. Two of these are nicely worked, out of a 

 very fine-grained stone which resembles diorite. These are five or six inches long, and one inch 

 thick in the middle. Specimens of all these implements are in the Yoy Collection. 



* See diagram of localities near Placerville, Plate C. 

 f See ante, p. 101. 



