698 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



he was informed by the Rev. W. W. Brier, a reliable minister 

 of Alvarado, Cal., that his [Brier's] brother, a miner, was 

 one of two men who took the so-called Calaveras skull from 

 a cave in the side of the valley, and placed it in the shaft, 

 where it was found, and that the whole object was a prac- 

 tical joke to deceive Professor Whitney, the geologist." 

 Whether this is probable can be judged from the foregoing 

 statement of facts as since detailed by Professor Whitney. 

 At any rate, it would have been the proper thing for this 

 renegade brother of the Rev. Mr. Brier to have submitted 

 himself to closer cross-examination from competent parties 

 than he seems to have done. 



Sir William Dawson and others have questioned whether 

 these human remains might not have been introduced at a 

 period subsequent to the deposition of the gravel and the 

 overflow of the lava. They have suggested that the Indians, 

 in searching for gold, may have run horizontal shafts into 

 the gravel underneath ; or, since the lava is not compact but 

 tufaceous in its character, it does not seem impossible that, 

 in some places, pits may have been sunk from the surface. 



The most formidable opposition to Professor Whitney's 

 conclusions comes, curiously enough, from evolutionists, so 

 that, upon this question, they are now found u among the 

 prophets." The thorough-going evolutionist believes that 

 early man was ape-like in his features, and that he invariably 

 passed through a stage in which he used rough stone imple- 

 ments before learning to polish them. But the Calaveras 

 skull, which, if genuine, far antedates anything human 

 which has been discovered in Europe, is not of a particularly 

 inferior order, and the implements purporting to come from 

 under Table Mountain are not of the palaeolithic type, but, 

 though exceedingly coarse and rude, correspond to those of 

 the smooth stone period in Europe. Professor Putnam, 

 however, suggests,* and Professor A. Winchell is ready to 



* " Report of the United States Geological Surveys west of the One Hun- 

 dredth Meridian," vol. vii, pp. 10-15. 



