280 THE AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 
of the nature of the objects which have been discovered. It shows, as the 
writer thinks, very decidedly that no portion of the evidence has been gotten 
up to deceive. Persons anxious to impose on the “unsuspecting geologist ” 
would have been likely, in some cases at least, to endeavor to palm off on 
him some specimen of writing m an unknown tongue, some article of fin- 
ished workmanship, or perhaps an imitation of some portion of the human 
figure; or possibly even something as preposterous as the “ Cardiff giant” 
in its make and style. 
One reason why this has not been done, perhaps, is that the miners, as a 
general rule, have very little appreciation of the great geological age of the 
formations in which they are working. They see that the “high gravels” 
look very much like those often occurring in the present river beds, and 
they do not ordinarily take into consideration the immense amount of erosion 
and denudation which the region must have undergone since these gravels 
were deposited. This inclination to see in all the objects found in excavat- 
ing in the older detrital formations a resemblance, or identity even, with 
species now existing in the region is well illustrated by the fact that the 
miners almost invariably declare the impressions of leaves and the fragments 
of wood occurring in the gravel to belong to trees and shrubs exactly like 
those now growing in the Sierra. Yet the reader will have seen, from what 
has been published in the preceding pages, how different most of these are. 
Another consideration may be introduced. Some persons are inclined to 
think that the implements found in the gravels are simply works of the 
present Indians, which, lying scattered over the surface, have been washed or 
carried down into the gravels, through fissures or in slides, or in some other 
not exactly defined manner. Some would suppose that these things might 
have been intentionally buried, either in funeral ceremonies or for conceal- 
ment. Had this been the case, it would have been expected that finds 
similar to those announced as of such frequent occurrence in the mining 
region would have turned up — occasionally, at least in the Coast 
Ranges. No instance of this, however, so far as known to the writer, has 
ever been heard of. The soil and detritus of the region about the Bay of 
San Francisco have been excavated for all sorts of purposes, and in a great 
many localities bones and teeth of extinct animals have been found in abun- 
dance. Never, so far as known, have any human bones or works of human 
hands been met with in connection with these remains, while they are com- 
mon enough on the surface. This non-occurrence of proof of the existence 
