458 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



the gravels and bone-breccias of Europe, But their record is dwarfed to com- 

 parative insignificance when laid by the side of that to which we have been look- 

 ing. The days of Table Mountain had passed off into the dark realm of the for- 

 gotten past ages before the drift of the valley of the Somme was deposited or the 

 man of the Neanderthal lived. Those European relics have by none been count- 

 ed older than the Post-pliocene ; these of the Sierra Nevada go back to the Plio- 

 cene, and as the "new world" of modern style was the very oldest in showing 

 itself above the waste of waters, so perhaps it was also the first to feel the step of 

 man. It is possible that the discoveries of Ribiero in Portugal and of the 

 English Geological Survey in India may be found to carry us as far back as the 

 times we have been discussing, but they have thus far been strangely ignored. 



What manner of man then was this Ancient Man of Calaveras ? Let him 

 speak for himself. All notice of the skull described by Professor Whitney has 

 been purposely omitted till this moment, because it is by far the most important 

 "find" yet made, and it is worthy of being considered by itself and in the pres- 

 ent connection. The chief point in estimating its value, is its genuineness. It 

 has been the subject of much criticism, and in the minds of very many, its men- 

 tion barely recalls Bret Harte's ridiculous doggerel, 



" My name it was Brown, and my crust it was busted 

 Falling down a shaft in Calaveras County," 



and the request to send the pieces back to old Mazzoura, has relegated the whole 

 matter to the domain of joke. In the belief that Professor Whitney was the vic- 

 tim of a sell, the question is often asked whether there is any evidence that the 

 skull was actually taken from the shaft to which its discovery is credited. 



Now with all due submission to previous judgment (or misjudgment), I 

 maintain that that question is of only secondary importance. The skull speaks for 

 itself, and notwithstanding that its lower jaw is gone, it talks good English, what- 

 ever its vernacular may have Deen in the days of the flesh. 



That it came to Professor Whitney from the hands of Mr. Mattison (or as I al- 

 ways heard him called, Matthewson), of Angels Camp, is certain. Where did Mr. 

 Matthewson get that skull ? I do not know, nor is the precise spot of much con- 

 sequence. Re says he took it from his shaft near what was then called the Forks 

 of the Road, above Angels. Suppose he did, or suppose he foolishly tried to 

 humbug the geologist, what does it matter ? He got the skull somewhere^ and 

 wherever it might have been first found, it surely has imbedded in the auriferous 

 gravel, and it had become so imbedded at the time the gravel was originally de- 

 posited. 



You say, that is a bold assertion; how do you know it? I will tell you; I 

 know it, because the skull told me so. I saw it and examined it carefully at the 

 time when it first reached Professor Whitney's hands. It was not only incrusted 

 with sand and gravel, but its cavities were crowded with the same material ; and 

 that material was of a peculiar sort, a sort which I had had occasion to know 

 thoroughly. It was the common " cement" or "dirt " of the miners ; that known 



