MA AT AND THE LAVA BEDS. 699 



admit,* that man wandered into California long before he 

 entered Europe, and attained there the higher state of devel- 

 opment reached by palaeolithic man in other parts of the 

 world at a much later date. 



The objection to Professor Whitney's inferences arising 

 from the possibility that the aboriginal inhabitants of that 

 region themselves carried on mining operations for the sake 

 of obtaining this gold is presented, in a convincing manner, 

 by Dr. James Southall. According to him,t Bancroft, in 

 his " Native Races of the Pacific States," refers to it as a 

 well-known fact that mining operations were carried on in 

 Mexico to a great extent, opening galleries into the solid 

 rock, in some cases two hundred feet or more in depth ; and 

 Schoolcraft, in his " Archaeology, " \ describes one of these 

 ancient shafts, which was discovered in 1849. This was two 

 hundred and ten feet deep, and its mouth was situated on a 

 high mountain. "The bones of a human skeleton were 

 found at the bottom. There were also found an altar for 

 worship and other evidences of ancient labor." 



It is to be observed that, in the quotation from School- 

 craft made by Bancroft, it is stated that " no evidence has 

 been discovered to denote the era of this ancient work. There 

 has been nothing to determine whether it is to be regarded 

 as the remains of the explorations of the first Spanish advent- 

 urers, or of a still earlier period. The occurrence of the re- 

 mains of an altar looks like the period of Indian worship." 

 Professor Putnam, however, writes me : "I think there is a 

 strong objection to the ancient mining theory, inasmuch as 

 we do not know of gold among the Californian Indians. The 

 Mexicans had it, but did they mine it in California ? The 

 stone mortars we find in the California gravels are not of 

 Mexican type, but of Californian type, the same form used 

 in recent times." 



* " Pre-Adamites," p. 428. f "Pliocene Man in America," p. 7. 



\ Vol. i, p. 105. For a full summary of facts see Bancroft's "Native Races 

 of the Pacific States," vol. iv. 



