

THE CALAVEEAS SKULL. 



269 







nearly all its organic matter, and that a large portion of the phosphate of lime had been replaced 

 by the carbonate. In other words, it was in a fossilized condition. The following are the results 

 of the analysis : 



Phosphate of lime 

 Carbonate of lime 

 Silica .... 

 Oxide of iron 

 Carbonate of magnesia . 

 Water and organic matter 



33.79 



62.03 



1.44 



.81 



1.86 



trace 



» ■ i i ■ i ■ n 



99.93 



The skull having been coated with wax to protect it, the analysis was made on a piece which 

 had been treated with ether to remove any still adhering particles of this substance : this also took 

 lip any organic matter remaining over from what originally existed there. A separate examination 

 of another piece of the skull showed, however, that only a trace of this existed. 



Such are the facts concerning the Calaveras skull, in regard to which there can be no dispute. 

 It remains to describe the geological position in which it was said by Mr. Mattison to have been 

 found, and then to see how the facts observed agree with his statements, and especially how far 

 the condition and appearance of the skull itself lend plausibility to the theory — widely circulated 

 and believed in — that the find is "a hoax." 



According to Mr. Mattison's statement, the skull was taken from a shaft which he himself had 

 sunk on the northwest slope of Laid Hill, at a distance of just half a mile northeast of Altaville, 

 which is about a mile and a quarter northwest of Angel's, the outcrop of the Great Quartz Vein 

 intersecting the road between the two places, and running close to and nearly parallel with it. 

 All along the region adjacent to this road, on the northwest, is a series of moderately high table- 

 topped elevations, which rise from 300 to 400 feet above the bed of Angel's Creek, just below the 

 town of that name. Bald Hill is the most conspicuous of these hills, and it runs in a northeast- 

 erly direction for half a mile, its culminating point being 388 feet above the creek at Angel's, 

 which itself is 1,380 feet above the sea-level. The higher portion of all these elevations is made 

 up of volcanic and detrital materials, consisting, so far as could be seen, of alternations of more or 

 less consolidated volcanic ashes and of gravel beds. The volcanic deposits are either white or 

 dark bluish-gray in color ; the whiter varieties being very fine-grained and pretty solidly compacted 

 together. It is what is usually called " white lava " by the miners, and is probably rhyolitic in 

 character. The deep gravels in this vicinity do not seem to have been profitable to work, and all 

 the excavations made about Bald Hill had been abandoned at the time of the writer's visit ; and, 

 so far as known, have not been resumed. The opportunities for getting an exact section of all the 

 beds as in this elevation have therefore not been satisfactory. Mr. Mattison, however, gave the 

 following as the section of the strata penetrated in sinking his shaft, which lie said was 153 feet 

 deep to the bed-rock : 



1. Black lava 



2. Gravel 



3. Light lava 



4. Gravel 



5. Light lava 

 ('). Gravel 



7. Dark brown lava 



8. Gravel 



1). Red lava 

 10. lied gravel 



Total 



Feet. 



40 

 3 



30 

 5 



15 



9 



5 



4 



17 



153 



The skull, on Mr. Mattison's authority, was found in bed No. 8, just above the lowest stratum 

 of lava. 





