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depth of several hundred feet from the surface, under volcanic 
and other deposits, in the gold-bearing gravel-beds of Cali- 
fornia. 
Mr. Bancroft, in his Native Races of the Pacific States 
(vol. iv. p. 698 et seq.), recites a number of cases in this con- 
nexion. 
We are informed that in 1858 a stone mortar holding two 
quarts was taken, at the depth of 300 ft. from the surface, 
from a mining tunnel in Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, 
California, lying in auriferous gravel under a thick stratum of 
lava. In 1862 another mortar was found at the depth of 340 ft. 
(104 of which were composed of lava), and 1,800 ft. from the 
mouth of the tunnel. At the same depth in Table Mountain, 
spear-heads, 6 or 8 in. long, a ladle of steatite, and a pendant 
or shuttle of siliceous slate, were found along with bones of the 
mastodon and other animals. At San Andres, in 1864, large 
stone mortars were taken from a layer of cemented gravel 6 ft. 
thick, lying under the following strata : — coarse sedimentaiy 
volcanic material, 5 ft.; sand and gravel, 100 ft.; brownish 
volcanic ash, 3 ft. ; cemented sand, 4 ft. ; bluish volcanic sand, 
15 ft. At Kincaid’s Flat, 16 or 20 ft. below the surface, in 
clayey auriferous gravel, a stone mortar and pestle, and many 
other stone implements were found with bones of the elephant 
and mastodon. At Gold Springs Gulch, in 1863, a granite 
mortar and pestle, the former being 12J in. in diameter, and 
weighing 30 lb., were found at the depth of 16 ft. in gravel. 
At Shaw’s Flat, along with bones of the mastodon, a stone 
bead of calc-spar and a granite mortar, holding about a pint, 
were found at a point 300 ft. from the mouth of the tunnel. 
At Gold Springs Gulch, discoidal stones (corresponding with 
the hurling or chungke stone disks of the Red Indians), per- 
forated through the centre, were found with mastodon bones, 
under about 25 ft. of calcareous tufa ; and at the same place, 
a flat oval dish of granite, 18|- in. in diameter, 2 or 3 in. 
thick, and weighing 40 lb. “ An ancient skillet,” as we are 
told, “made of lava, hard as iron, with a spout and three legs, 
was washed out of a claim at Forest Hill.” A similar 
“ skillet ” was found in 1861, at Coloma, at a depth of 15 ft., 
under an oak not less than a thousand years old. “ Many 
stone mortars and mastodon bones,” we are told, te have been 
found about Altaville and Murphy’s.” It was at Altaville that 
the famous Calaveras skull was found some twelve years ago. 
This skull was submitted to the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science in 1869 by Professor Whitney, the 
State Geologist of California. “ It was found in a shaft 130 ft. 
deep, near Angelos, in Calaveras county. The shaft passed 
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