



M^H^^^Btv^Haip 



'..' 



240 



THE AITPJFEEOUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



of evidence thus brought together and compared inferences may be drawn, 

 and even definite conclusions arrived at, which shall have all the weight of 

 authority ; since it is not likely that a considerable number of persons, at 

 different times and places, each knowing nothing of the other's doings, 

 should make exactly the same misrepresentation. 



The miners, in general, do notice the occurrence of animal remains in 

 their workings with some attention, and this for several reasons; chiefly, 

 however, because the bones found are often of great size, and so make a 

 strong impression on their imaginations. It may easily be conceived that 

 the skull of a mastodon, or even a single tooth of this animal, is not an object 

 likely to be passed by without notice, even by the most ignorant miner. In- 

 deed, so far as our observation goes, these men almost always set a wonderful 

 value on such specimens, and are often unwilling to part with them at any 

 price. Hence it is that we, in some instances, have been obliged to be con- 

 tent with a cast or even drawing of some unique bone or tooth, while in 

 other cases the object could only be borrowed for a short time, — -just long 

 enough for study and comparison. 



Nearly all the animal remains obtained from the gravel deposits belonging 

 to the vertebrates, our specimens have, almost without excejotion, been re- 

 ferred to Dr. Joseph Leidy for examination and description. This was done 

 from time to time during the continuance of the Geological Survey, and a 

 portion of his results have been given in the volume of Geology published 

 in 1865. Among the material submitted to this eminent authority in ver- 

 tebrate palaeontology there was nothing of human origin. In regard to 

 objects belonging to this latter class, advice and information was sought 

 from Dr. Jeffries Wyman, who was made acquainted by the writer with 

 every step in the progress of the discovery of evidence bearing on the 

 antiquity of man in California. None of this, however, has been published, 

 up to the present time, and it will be given in a body in the next section 

 of this chapter. Dr. Leidy's results have been in part communicated to the 

 scientific world in Geology Vol. I., as already mentioned, and the remainder 



will be found included in the elaborate volumes published by him in 1869 

 and 1873.* All that it will be necessary to do, at the present time, in regard 



* The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska, including an Account of some Allied 

 Forms from other Localities. By Joseph Leidy, M. D., LL. D. Philadelphia. 1869. Contributions to 

 the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories. By Professor Joseph Leidy ; the same being 

 Vol. I. of the Report of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. Washington. 1873. 



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