THE 
FOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 
OCTOBER— NOVEMBER, 7S99 
Cie erelOCe NM SKULL OP CALIFORNIA AND) KEE 
FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN 
Tue celebrated skull from Calaveras. county, California, 
claimed to have been found at a depth of 130 feet in the aurifer- 
ous gravel deposits of a Pliocene river ‘‘beneath the lava, in the 
cement, and in close proximity to a completely petrified oak”’ 
was exhibited by Professor J. D. Whitney at the Chicago meeting 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 
the month of August 1868. 
At that time the attention of the Association in general ses- 
sion was directed by the writer to certain conditions and _ pecul- 
iarities of the relic which made it unreasonable to accept it as 
coming from the deep gravels of a river. The objections then 
made to the skull as evidence of man’s great antiquity do not 
appear to have been reported or recorded, having been given in 
the course of the discussion and not in a paper of record. 
One chief reason for the rejection of the skull as coming 
from the gravelly bed of an ancient river is the entire absence on 
its surface, or on its broken edges, of any marks of attrition. 
If the skull had ever been rolled along the bed of a river with 
the bowlders and gravel, it would bear the marks of the violent 
pounding and wearing action to which any bone or object occur- 
ring in such gravels is subjected. In fact, a hollow bone or least 
Vol. VU, No. 7, 631 
