THE CALAVEKAS SKULL. 



271 



if you 'd send the pieces home to old Missouri/' as scientific authority, says, in describing the gold 

 mines of California : " Cost au fond d'un de ces puits que fut ecrase un jour un mineur missourien, 

 qui resta saisi dans reboulcment. Plus tard le savant Whitney, qui devait attacher son nom a- la 



geologic californienne, rencontra dans le memo lieu, un crane humain fossile Disons nous 



bicn vite que Hiomme prehistoriquo de la Californie ne semble pas plus authentique que celui 

 d' Abbeville," &c. 



Having in the preceding pages set forth somewhat in detail the condition of the skull when re- 

 ceived from Dr. Jones, and described its appearance after being freed from the debris in which it 

 was imbedded, and having shown what the materials were thus found associated with it, it remains 

 to add a few remarks in elucidation of the question how far the condition and appearance of this 

 skull and all the facts connected with it justify us in believing that the statement of Mr. Mattison 

 in regard to the place in which it was found may be accepted as true. 



The skull, being as nearly deprived of its organic matter as fossil bones found in the Tertkry 

 usually are, and having had a largo portion of its phosphate replaced by carbonate of lime, is un- 

 doubtedly a fossil. Chemical analysis proves that it was not taken from the surface, but that it 

 was dug up somewhere, from some place where it had been long deposited, and where it had un- 

 dergone those chemical changes which, so far as known, do not take place in objects buried near 

 the surface. In view of these undoubted facts, the absurdity of the statement previously quoted 

 in regard to the placing of the skull in the shaft " as a hoax " to be played off on the " anti-Scrip- 

 tural " miner becomes apparent. The miners who are supposed to have done this clever trick 

 must themselves have obtained from somewhere the object thus used ; and as all the diggings 

 in that vicinity are in the gravels intercalated between the volcanic strata, it becomes, really, a 

 matter of but little consequence, from a, geological point of view, from whose shaft the skull was 

 taken. The following are the considerations, then, which lead us to put confidence in Mr. Matti- 

 son's assertions as to his having taken the skull out of his own shaft, and from the position already 

 indicated. 



In the first place, the locality and the neighborhood were several times visited by the State 

 Geologist, and also by three of his assistants, and by several of his personal friends not con- 

 nected with the Geological Survey, and to all these Messrs. Mattison and Scribner have given 

 exactly the same statement in regard to the finding of the skull. All of these gentlemen have 

 returned from the place strongly impressed with the idea that there was no mistake, and certainly 

 no intentional misstatement, on the part of either of the principal parties whose names are associ- 

 ated, with the find. Messrs. Mattison and Scribner have uniformly told to all the same story, and 

 nothing has developed itself as offering a motive to either of these gentlemen to enter into a com- 

 bination for the purpose of deceiving individuals or the public. The skull remained on and near 

 the place where it was obtained for several months after it was discovered; and no doubts were 

 expressed by any one as to the good faith of the parties concerned, until after it had been sent to 

 San Francisco and had been much written about in the newspapers. At the time of the writer's 

 first visit to the region, after the discovery had been made, the miners were evidently entirely 

 unaware of the geological significance of the find. Similar ones had been made before, in repeated 

 instances, and in various districts in the neighborhood, without exciting, so far as it appears, any 

 special interest. I 1 is giving the miners for too much credit for geological knowledge to believe 

 that they would recognize the importance of such a discovery. Much less would it have occurred 

 to them to see anything " anti- Scriptural " in it. 



Again, evidence in regard to the skull obtained from an inspection of the ground in the shaft 

 about the spot whence it was said to have been taken is, as yet, wanting, as the excavation lias 

 remained filled with water during the whole time since the skull came into the writer's possession, 

 and it has never been in his power to visit the place at a time when the shaft could conveniently, 

 without considerable expense, be emptied of its water. It was his intention to have this done ; 

 but circumstances have rendered it impossible that the desired end should be attained. Mr. Mat- 

 tison has always said that he expected to resume work in the shaft at some future, not distant, 



L 



