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HUMAN REMAINS: UNDER TABLE MOUNTAIN. 265 
understand perfectly the geological features of the point at which the discovery was made. It was 
in the Valentine Shaft, which was sunk on the side of Table Mountain, a little south of Shaw’s 
Flat. There were several shafts ranged nearly in a line between the Flat and the summit of the 
mountain. The Valentine Company’s claim lay between the Sampson and the Columbia claims, 
all of them working through vertical shafts. The Sampson shaft passed through six feet of sur- 
face soil; then forty-two of pipe-clay; then four of hard “sand cement” containing numerous 
impressions of leaves, and bones towards the bottom of the stratum; then under that the pay 
gravel, nine feet in thickness. The section in the Valentine Shaft was almost identically the same 
as that in Sampson, except that, the former being higher up on the mountain, its depth was neces- 
sarily greater, and more of the pipe-clay had to be passed through. The essential facts are, that 
the Valentine Shaft was vertical, that it was boarded up to the top, so that nothing could have 
fallen in from the surface during the working under ground, which was carried on in the gravel 
channel exclusively, after the shaft had been sunk. There can be no doubt that the specimen 
came from the drift in the channel under Table Mountain, as affirmed by Mr. Hubbs. This 
gentleman was on the ground himself, at the time the fragment was found, and he says: “I saw 
the portion of skull immediately after its being taken out of the sluice into which it had been 
shovelled, and some of the marine dirt was sticking to it.” By “ marine dirt” is meant the pay 
gravel; Mr. Hubbs, like many other miners* at that time, having the idea that the auriferous 
gravels were of marine origin. It is clear from Mr. Hubbs’s statements that the fragment was 
raised from the stratum of pay gravel, and that it was noticed when the contents of the bucket 
were dumped into the head of the sluice, and either picked up by Mr. Hubbs, or by some one else 
who happened to be standing by, and who handed it to him on the spot. The evidence seems 
very clear, in all respects, so far as the fact of the occurrence of human remains in the strata 
underlying the Table Mountain basalt is concerned. Unfortunately the piece of skull preserved is 
too small to be made the basis of any craniological investigations. 
Additional and entirely independent information in regard to the discovery of proofs of the 
former existence of man at this locality was also obtained from Mr. Albert G. Walton, who was 
one of the owners of the Valentine Claim, and the carpenter under whose direction the shaft was 
timbered, as already mentioned. According to his statement the section of the formation passed 
through in sinking this shaft was as follows : soil, six to ten feet ; pipe-clay, seventy feet ; cement, 
with fossil leaves and small branches of trees, three to four feet ; pay gravel, five to nine fect, 
making the total depth of the shaft from ninety to ninety-five feet. The depth of 180 feet, previ- 
ously stated by Mr. Hubbs, means the vertical distance from the surface to the workings at the 
end of the drift leading from the shaft to the point where the fragment of a human skull was 
found. According to Mr. Walton, who remembers nothing of the finding of this piece of bone, 
there was a mortar found in these workings in the gravel. It was about fifteen inches in diameter, 
and, as he says, resembled those so often found in the diggings in California. Mr. Valentine, on 
the other hand, who was one of the owners of the claim, corroborated the main facts about the 
position of the workings, as being in the channel under the basaltic capping, but remembered noth- 
ing about any discovery of either bones or implements. It is clear that, had it not been for the 
accidental presence of Mr. Hubbs on the spot, at the time the piece of skull was found, we should 
never have heard anything of it. And if Mr. Hubbs had not given it to an enthusiastic observer, 
like Dr. Winslow, it would probably never have come to the notice of scientific men. One should 
bear in mind how few of the discoveries of human relics or remains which are made are likely 
ever to be heard of beyond a very limited area, even under the most favorable circumstances, as is 
well illustrated by the facts in this case. 
Mr. Voy was able to procure still further evidence bearing on the question of the occurrence of 
implements under Table Mountain. This evidence is given as it came into the writer’s hands, in 
the form of an affidavit, duly sworn to before a magistrate : — 
* And some scientific men. See ante, pp. 70, 71. 
