HUMAN REMAINS IN THE GRAVELS. 259 
familiar to geologists, and it may now be considered as generally admitted 
by them that the human race was living in Europe during the later Pleis- 
tocene age. The great question now is, How far back can man and his 
works be traced? and in regard to this point a large store of reputed facts 
are gradually being brought together, and most geologists are ready and 
willing to examine them and discuss their authenticity, the time having 
gone by when they were contemptuously thrown aside as conflicting with 
one of the fundamental ideas of the science. The following pages are 
offered, therefore, as a contribution to the history of prehistoric man, as 
setting forth the results obtained during several years of geological work 
in California, — years in which this subject was not made a special object 
of research, but when facts which came under our observation were ex- 
amined into, so far as time and circumstances admitted, and which, taken 
together, form a considerable body of material. 
Before entering upon the setting forth of what has been collected relating 
to the antiquity of man in California, it will be desirable to say a few words 
in regard to the nature of the evidence presented and the manner in which 
it has been collected. 
It will have become abundantly evident, from what has been stated in the 
preceding pages, that most of the material collected bearing on such a ques- 
tion as the one now under discussion must be expected to be of a very frag- 
mentary character. The nature of the auriferous deposits is such as to 
preclude, except in a few specially favored situations, any hope of finding a 
large number of fossil remains in an undisturbed position. Objects found in 
the gravel must, of course, have been subjected to the same long-contin- 
ued course of abrasion and transportation as the material in which they 
are imbedded has undergone. It has already been mentioned how of 
several species of animals found in the auriferous detrital deposits only a 
single tooth has as yet been obtained, while others are represented by two 
or three fragments of teeth or bones at most. The finer-grained beds, such 
as pipe-clay and sand, are usually unproductive in gold, and therefore rarely 
worked except in cases of necessity. But it is in these that one would 
expect to find remains in the most perfect condition and in the largest 
quantity, other circumstances being favorable. 
There is another point which must be mentioned in this connection, and 
especially as bearing on the question why so much of the evidence pre- 
sented in relation to the antiquity of man dates back quite a number of 
