THE CALAVERAS SKULL. 
269 
nearly all its organic matter, and that a large portion of the phosphate of lime had been replaced 
by the carbonate. In other words, it was in a fossilized condition. 
of the analysis :— 
The following are the results 
Phosphate of lime 33.79 
Carbonate of lime 62.03 
Silica 1.44 
Oxide of iron 81 
Carbonate of magnesia . 1.86 
Water and organic matter . trace 
99.93 
The skull having been coated with wax to protect it, the analysis was made on a piece which 
had been treated with ether to remove any still adhering particles of this substance : this also took 
up any organic matter remaining over from what originally existed there. A separate examination 
of another piece of the skull showed, however, that only a trace of this existed. 
Such are the facts concerning the Calaveras skull, in regard to which there can be no dispute. 
Tt remains to describe the geological position in which it was said by Mr. Mattison to have been 
found, and then to see how the facts observed agree with lis statements, and especially how far 
the condition and appearance of the skull itself lend plausibility to the theory — widely circulated 
and believed in — that the find is ‘‘a hoax.” 
According to Mr. Mattison’s statement, the skull was taken from a shaft which he himself had 
sunk on the northwest slope of Bald Hill, at a distance of just half a mile northeast of Altaville, 
which is about a mile and a quarter northwest of Angel’s, the outcrop of the Great Quartz Vein 
intersecting the road between the two places, and running close to and nearly parallel with it. 
All along the region adjacent to this road, on the northwest, is a series of moderately high table- 
topped elevations, which rise from 300 to 400 feet above the bed of Angel’s Creek, just below the 
town of that name. Bald Hill is the most conspicuous of these hills, and it runs in a northeast- 
erly direction for half a mile, its culminating point being 388 feet above the creek at <Angel’s, 
which itself is 1,380 feet above the sea-level. The higher portion of all these elevations is made 
up of volcanic and detrital materials, consisting, so far as could be seen, of alternations of more or 
less consolidated volcanic ashes and of gravel beds. The volcanic deposits are either white or 
dark bluish-gray in color ; the whiter varieties being very fine-grained and pretty solidly compacted 
together. It is what is usually called “ white lava” by the miners, and is probably rhyolitic in 
character. The deep gravels in this vicinity do not seem to have been profitable to work, and all 
the excavations made about Bald Hill had been abandoned at the time of the writer’s visit ; and, 
so far as known, have not been resumed. The opportunities for getting an exact section of all the 
beds as in this elevation have therefore not been satisfactory. Mr. Mattison, however, gave the 
following as the section of the strata penetrated in sinking his shaft, which he said was 153 feet 
deep to the bed-rock : — 
Feet. 
1. Black lava . 3 3 , ‘i : : * : « 40 
2. Gravel % : : és ‘ A ; , 5 : 3 
3. Light lava. : ‘ 2 . : : : : . 30 
4. Gravel A ‘ : ‘ F : ; 4 : : 5 
5. Light lava. : ‘ : : : : : : = 2G 
6. Gravel : = : F : ‘ ‘ P : “ 25 
7. Dark brown lava . ; = : : : 2 d 4 
8. Gravel . : 2 A ‘ : : , , P 5 
9. Red lava 5 3 P é = - ‘ R ~ #4 
10. Red gravel : ee : ee oie : : : 17 
Total A : : . : : : 153 
The skull, on Mr. Mattison’s authority, was found in bed No. 8, just above the lowest stratum 
of lava, 
