CHAPTER XXIV. (Concluded). 



MAN AND THE LAVA BEDS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



The occurrence of human relics in the auriferous gravels 

 of California, where in some places they are capped with ex- 

 tensive lava overflows, though still a subject under hot 

 discussion is too important and interesting to be passed over 

 without a full detail of the facts. The connection of these 

 facts with the glacial epoch, though inferential, is by no means 

 uncertain; for, confessedly, the lava flows west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, though commencing early in the tertiary period, 

 have continued in great volume down to very recent times, 

 some extensive eruptions having occurred in California and 

 Idaho within the last two or three hundred years; while the 

 remains of extinct animals found in the auriferous gravels are 

 substantially the same as to be found in the glacial deposits 

 of the eastern United States and Europe. At the same time 

 the indications are clear that the glaciers of the Sierras in 

 California and elsewhere extended greatly beyond their present 

 limits down to a period of time separated from us by only a 

 few centuries. Nor should the existence of unbelief, on the 

 part of many, prevent a candid consideration of the facts, 

 for it is pre-eminently a question of evidence such as is em- 

 ployed in all historical investigations, and so, open to chal- 

 lenge. But we are convinced, it is beset with difficulties 

 no greater than pertains to all investigations of a similiar 

 nature. 



The incredulity prevailing concerning these facts will 

 largely disappear upon consideration of the evidence of re- 



