DISCUSSION. 



Reverend G. Frederick Wright: Iu the early part of October last 

 while in Sonora to make arrangements for driving to the Yosemite, I was 

 introduced to Mr. C. McTarnahan, assistant county surveyor of Tuolumne 

 county, as a gentleman who could furnish me information concerning Table 

 mountain. On inquiring of him concerning the situation of the Valentine 

 shaft, to which reference is made by Professor Whitney, he was able to tell 

 me the exact locality, though he had never heard of any human relics having 

 been found in it; but he at once said that he had himself recently found a 

 mortar in his father's mine underneath Table mountain. On asking him 

 where the mortar was, he said that it was in the possession of Mrs. M. J. 

 Darwin, of Santa Rosa, who passed through Sonora soon after the discovery, 

 and to whom he gave it. 



On returning from the Yosemite, Mr. McTarnahan repeated to me the 

 information more in detail. The discovery was made in October, 1887, in 

 the Empire mine, which was owned in part by his father and in which work 

 is still continued. This mine is on the western side of Table mountain, and 

 was reported upon by E. F. Thomas in the volume published by the state in 

 1888. This mine lies nearly westward from Shaw's flat, and, from the open- 

 ing, penetrates the rim underneath Table mountain a distance of 742 feet. 

 Mr. McTarnahan himself found the mortar in the gravel, as work was pro- 

 ceeding, 500 feet from the outside of the rim, which, from the direction of the 

 drift, would make it 200 feet from the apex of the rim under the surface of 

 the basalt. He described the mortar as a granite bowlder about eight inches 

 in diameter, and the hollow four inches in diameter at the surface and three 

 inches deep. There was no possible motive for Mr. McTarnahan to distort 

 the facts in any way, and the measurements and other facts, as above given, 

 were stated by him instantaneously in connection with the introduction of 

 the subject, and everything in connection with the account had the appear- 

 ance of straightforward honesty. 



On writing to Mrs. Darwin at Santa Rosa, requesting photographs of the 

 mortar and giving the statement furnished me by Mr. McTarnahan, she sent 

 me a photograph with the measurements on the back side ; but she writes 

 that she does not remember to have learned from Mr. McTarnahan that the 

 mortar was found in the tunnel, as that was a circumstance which he did not 

 impress upon her and she does not remember that he mentioned it. 



(199) 



