a 
HUMAN ‘REMAINS IN THE GRAVELS. 263 
hardly possible to escape the inference that the human race earsted before the disappearance of these 
animals |the mastodon and elephant] from the region which was once so thickly inhabited by them.” 
The bones and relics found by Mr. Cannell were from a depth of about ninety feet below the 
surface. 
Mr. Voy, several years later, obtained abundant corroborative evidence of the above statement 
from various parties in the vicinity of Gold Springs. The following is an extract from his notes 
on the subject furnished to the writer: “A wagon-load of bones of mastodon and other large 
animals was destroyed by a fire here, some years ago. In close proximity to these were found 
numerous stone implements at various times, and at different depths. A very interesting mortar 
which was discovered here is made of hard granite, and is ornamented on the outside with diaco- 
nal markings, about three quarters of an inch deep and half an inch wide. This mortar is thirty- 
seven and a half inches in circumference, weighing some thirty pounds. It was found in the year 
1863, near other relics and animal remains, imbedded in auriferous gravel mixed with calcareous 
tufa, at a depth of about sixteen feet beneath the surface.” Some distance below this—in Gold 
Springs Gulch — other relics were found, one of which is in Mr. Voy’s collection. It is a large 
oval, shallow stone dish, fifty-three inches in circumference and weighing about forty pounds. This 
was found, in 1862, in auriferous gravel beneath an accumulation of about twenty feet of calca- 
reous tufa. Among the relics obtained at this locality are certain discoidal stones, from three to 
four inches in diameter, and about an inch and a half thick, concave on both sides, with perforated 
centre. Some of these implements are made of granite, others of sandstone. The purpose for 
which they were used it seems not easy to make out. 
At Kincaid Flat, famous as a locality of animal remains,* stone mortars and pestles have been 
found in the auriferous detritus at various depths below the surface, up to twenty feet, as is stated. 
Some of these are in Mr. Voy’s collection, as also certain implements supposed by him to have 
been intended to be used in connection with a bow, for enabling the hand to get a better grasp of 
the weapon. 
On Woods’ Creek, in various years from 1862 to 1865, numerous fossil remains of the mastodon, 
elephant, and other animals were found, and with them stone implements of different kinds. 
Among these was a large stone dish, or platter, as well as mortars. The depth at which these 
objects were found varied from twenty to forty feet. The same statement may be repeated with 
regard to other localities in this vicinity ; as, for instance, Springfield and Columbia. On Mormon 
Creek similar discoveries were made during the years from 1851 to 1865. It is not necessary to 
delay longer on this class of occurrences. It may be stated, in general, that all about Sonora the 
auriferous gravels which have been worked as placer mines, and the material filling the crevices in 
the limestone belt, already described, have in a great number of localities been found to be filled 
with the bones of animals of extinct species ; and that with these many relics of tlie works of hu- 
man hands have also been discovered, at various depths, down to about a hundred feet.t 
We come now to a more interesting branch of the subject, namely, those facts which Indicate 
the existence of man in this region previous to the basaltic overflow forming the capping of Table 
Mountain, so often referred to in the previous pages. There are a number of occurrences of this 
kind, and they will be discussed in the order in which they have been brought to the writer’s 
notice. 
* A photograph sent by Mr. Voy, and examined since page 252 was in type, shows —as the writer 
believes —that Mastodon obscurus has also been found at Kincaid Flat. The photograph is labelled “Two 
fossil mastodon teeth found in 1861 with numerous others ; also elephant, camel, and horse remains, and 
stone mortars and other stone relics, imbedded in auriferous gravel, about sixteen feet below the surface, at 
Kincaid Flat, Tuolumne County, California. In Voy’s Cabinet.” 
+ A large number of these relics are now preserved in the Museum of the University of California, 
which contains not only the Voy Collection, but the materials of the Geological Survey. They have all 
been examined by the writer, and there can be no possible doubt as to their being the work of human 
hands. 
