VIII THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN NORTH AMERICA 
44.5 
inhabit any part of the North American continent. Besides 
these we have a tolerably abundant series of vegetable remains, 
well preserved in the white clays formed from the volcanic 
ash. These comprise forty-nine species of deciduous trees and 
shrubs, all distinct from those now living, while not a single 
coniferous leaf or fruit has been found, although pines and firs 
are now the prevalent trees all over the sierra. Professor 
Lesquereaux, who has described these plants, considers them 
to be of Pliocene age with some affinities to Miocene ; while 
Professor Whitney, the State geologist of California, considers 
that the animal remains indicate at least a similar antiquity. 
These abundant animal and vegetable remains have mostly 
been discovered in the process of gold-mining, the gravel and 
sand of the old river-beds preserved under the various flows 
of basalt being especially rich in gold. Numerous shafts have 
been sunk and underground tunnels excavated in the auriferous 
gravels and clays, and the result has been the discovery not 
only of extinct animals and plants, but of works of art and 
human remains. The former have been found in nine different 
counties in the same gravels in which the extinct animals 
occur, while in no less than five widely separate localities, 
underneath the ancient lava flows, remains of man himself 
have been discovered. In order to show the amount of this 
evidence, and to enable us to appreciate the force or weakness 
of the objections with which, as usual, it has been received, a 
brief enumeration of these discoveries will be made. We will 
begin with the works of art as being the most numerous. 
Works of Art in the Auriferous Gravels 
In Tuolumne County from 1862 to 1865 stone mortars 
and platters were found in the auriferous gravel along with 
bones and teeth of mastodon ninety feet below the surface, 
and a stone muller was obtained in a tunnel driven under 
Table Mountain. In 1870 a stone mortar was found at a 
depth of sixty feet in gravel under clay and “ cement/’ as the 
hard clay with vegetable remains (the old volcanic ash) is 
called by the miners. In Calaveras County from 1860 to 
1869 many mortars and other stone implements were found 
in the gravels under lava beds, and in other auriferous gravels 
and clays at a depth of 150 feet. In Amador County stone 
