I882.-J The Ancient Man of Calaveras. 849 



We can take the proofs only in brief, and we will take none 

 but those which are absolutely established and authentic. 



Dr. Perez Snell, of Sonora, had in his collection (this collection 

 has unfortunately perished by fire) a human jaw which was 

 brought out in a carload of " pay-dirt " from a shaft stretching 

 far in beneath the Table mountain, and with it were several stone 

 implements. Dr. Snell did not himself see this bone in the car 

 as it was drawn to the surface, and in the minds of some a doubt 

 might thus be thrown on its authenticity. The specimen was 

 given to him by a miner. If it were an isolated instance this 

 would be possibly worth considering, but it is only one of many, 

 and at the same time it is only fair to state that there could not 

 well have been found a miner in all that region who would have 

 thought it worth his while to attempt a deception, nor even one 

 who had any doubt in his own mind as to the point we are consid- 

 ering. They saw the products of man's work come out with the 

 gravel too often to pay commonly any attention to them. The 

 only wonder is that he even took the trouble to pick out the bone 

 at all. There can be no question that for one such that has been 

 preserved, dozens and perhaps hundreds have gone down in the 

 current of water in the sluice washing. 



In 1857 Col. Hubbs, who was afterward State Superintendent 

 of Instruction, found in a load of " dirt " as it came out from his 

 claim under Table mountain, portions of a human skull. He was 

 on the ground himself, and saw the fragments as they were taken 

 out of the sluice. They had come from a distance of 180 feet 

 beneath the lava. One of the pieces is now in the collection of 

 the Boston Society of Natural History; the other in that of the 

 Philadelphia Academy. 



Mr. O. W. Stevens certifies that in 1853 he found in a shaft 

 under Table mountain, " about two hundred feet in," a relic that 

 resembled a large stone bead, of white marble, about an inch and 

 a half long and an inch and a fourth in diameter, with a hole 

 through it a fourth of an inch across. 

 * Dr. Snell had in his collection a stone muller or pestle which 

 he took with his own hands from a car load of " dirt " as it came 

 out from under Table mountain. 



Mr. Llewellyn Price certifies that in 1862 he dug up a stone 

 mortar under Table mountain at a depth of about 200 feet from 

 the surface and about 1800 feet in from the mouth of the tunnel. 



