SOUTHERN CALIFOKNIANS. 11 



look for much that at present it seems impossible otherwise to account for; 

 and it is only at that early period that unity of characters can be expected 

 between the primitive stocks of both sides of the Pacific, and if geological 

 evidence should in future prove what it now hints at, that there was a com- 

 paratively recent subsidence of a continental mass in the Pacific Ocean, the 

 unity of this type could hardly be questioned. 



Dr. J. Gr. Cooper thus describes the conditions under which man prob- 

 ably first existed in California. 



"From these evidences we perceive that the climate of that day was tropical. The 

 country consisted of peninsulas and islands like those of the present East Indies, re- 

 sembling tbem also in climate and productions. From the extent of water surrounding 

 them there was abundant rainfall and luxuriant vegetation, suitable for the animals 

 mentioned. 



"It is not unlikely that some of these animals* may have existed before and after 

 the pliocene epoch. * * * The termination of this tropical epoch in California was 

 marked (as described first by Professor Whitney) by enormous volcanic outbursts which 

 poured out great streams of lava on the slope of the Sierra Nevada, covering entirely 

 large tracts towards the north. At the same time the whole country was apparently 

 raised by the elevation of new mountain ranges and increase of old ones, causing the 

 lakes to be drained and their beds filled by washings from the hills mixed with volcanic 

 materials. This great convulsion, no doubt, exterminated most of the tropical flora 

 and fauna of California, although some of its representatives might have existed later 

 in neighboring regions. * * * Many extinct land animals have been found to have 

 lived in Europe since the appearance of man on the earth, and there is strong evidence 

 in the 'Calaveras skull,' and others, that the same fact is true of California." t 



It is necessary to add here that Professor Whitney is satisfied that the 

 evidence he will shortly publish will be convincing as to the existence of 

 man in the Pliocene of California. 



[Since the above was written Professor Whitney has delivered a lecture in Cam- 

 bridge (April 25, 1878), on the Antiquity of Man in California. In this lecture he gave 

 a portion of the evidence, both geological and legalj in relation to the position of the 

 Calaveras skull and other human remains found in tbe pliocene gravel under the 

 basaltic layer of Table Mountain. He also mentioned nearly twenty other instances 

 of the finding of human remains, or the works of man, in the auriferous gravels of the 

 same formation as those of Table Mountain. He further stated that the evidence of 

 the existence of man during the post-pliocene period, the deposits of which were formed 

 subsequently to the cessation of volcanic activity in the Sierra Nevada, which period 

 of activity was closed by the eruption of the basalt, was so well established as to show 



*Tlie animals mentioned are tiger, wolf, llama, huflalo, horse, rhinoceros, elephant, two species 

 of mastodon, and a large tortoise. 



t Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, vol. v, p. 389 (1874), 1875. 



