195 
through five beds of lava and volcanic tufa, and four beds of 
auriferous gravel. The upper bed of tufa was homogeneous 
and without a crack through which a human relic could have 
been introduced into the lower beds. The skull was given to 
Professor Wyman to describe,, who found great difficulty in 
removing the cemented gravel in which it was incrusted.” I 
quote from Dr. Foster. 
In 1857, Dr. C. F. Winslow sent to the Boston Natural 
History Society the fragment of a human cranium, found in 
the “pay-dirt,” in connexion with bones of the mastodon 
and elephant, 180 feet below the surface of Table Mountain. 
Prof. Le Conte, in his Elements of Geology , refers in a 
hesitating way to these discoveries, and remarks (p. 567) that 
if man should undoubtedly be found in the older auriferous 
gravel, “ it would show an immense antiquity, for, since the 
lava-flow, canons have been cut by the present rivers 2,000 
or 3,000 feet deep in solid slate rock.” 
Since these mortars were abandoned by man, according to 
Dr. Foster, te the physical features, as well as the climate of 
this region, have undergone great changes. The volcanic 
peaks of the Sierra have been lifted up, the glaciers have dis- 
appeared, the great canons themselves have been excavated 
in the solid rock, and what were once the beds of streams 
now form the Table Mountain” (p. 54). 
It was stated last year in the New York Independent that 
in the forthcoming edition of his Elements Prof. Le Conte 
will commit himself fully to the Pliocene age of these relics. 
With regard to this I have no personal knowledge, but the 
Independent spoke as if well informed on the subject. 
Professor Whitney, however, has very recently made a 
formal report on these gravels ( Auriferous Gravels of the 
Sierra Nevada , 1879), and in this he expresses the conviction 
that they belong to the Upper Tertiary, and that the human 
relics found in them are beyond question of the same period. 
He gives a list of the objects which have been found 
in the gravel, comprising (1) a mortar found in pay gravel 
under volcanic matter, at the depth of 150 feet (at San 
Andreas) ; (2) A stone hatchet, triangular in shape, size 
4 inches around, 6 inches long, with a hole through it for a 
handle, found 75 feet from the surface in gravel, and under 
basalt, 300 feet from the mouth of the tunnel, locality Table 
Mountain, Tuolumne county ; (3) a large number of mortars, 
pestles, stone dishes, with bones of elephant and mastodon at 
“ Murphy’s ” Tuolumne co. ; (4) mortars, weighing from 20 
to 40 pounds in gravel, at the depth of 40 feet, locality 
Amodor co. ; (5) bones of a human skeleton found in clay at a 
5 
