K:A.lsr8^S CITY . 



Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 



VOL. VI. DECEMBER, 1882. NO. 8. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



THE ANCIENT MAN OF CALAVERAS. 



W. O. AYRES. 



* In the minds of almost all, the existence of prehistoric man in CaUfornia is 

 associated mainly with the famous "Calaveras skull," and inasmuch as doubt has 

 been cast on the authenticity of that reUc, the whole subject has been badly neg- 

 lected, and even by men of science has been unreasonably set aside. We will 

 speak of that skull presendy, but it is only one of the many evidences to be 

 considered, and we will at first put it out of view. We shall find that if it had 

 never come to light at all, the proofs that man existed when, or rather before, 

 the auriferous gravel was deposited, are so complete that he who doubts them 

 would as readily doubt that Napoleon Bonaparte died on the Island of St. Helena. 

 The auriferous gravel of the books is the pay-dirt of the miners, and that we 

 may know what the existence of man at the time of its deposit means, we must 

 endeavor to ascertain how long ago that deposit occurred. If we say to a geolo- 

 gist that the gravel is of Pliocene age, he carries back his thoughts over an inter- 

 val of which the years reckoned by thousands are never counted, though he 

 knows the thousands must be very many. But for those to whom Pliocene and 

 Post-Pliocene sound like barbarous terms it may be possible to adduce a form of 

 proof which appeals to the eye, and which brings with it therefore, a force which 

 all can appreciate. 



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