203 
Mr. S. R . Pattison, F. G. S. (having read the paper in the author’s unavoid- 
able absence, then added) : — I will not detain the meeting more than a few 
minutes by my remarks ; but I wish to state that since this paper was 
written — in fact, within the last few days — there has been a very 
important addition made by Professor Whitney to the materials that are 
here put forward. That addition is so important that I feel justified in a.t 
once bringing it under the notice of the Institute. It occurs in the second 
part of his “ Report.” In this he carefully goes over his surveys— the whole of 
the area of the Pacific slopes, from the plains of California to the summit of 
the Rocky Mountains — and he adds to his conclusions those of another 
of the State geologists who worked with him. Professor Whitney con- 
tends that the auriferous gravels from the Pacific slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains (gravels which are now worked for gold, and which have been so 
worked very extensively) represent the whole tertiary period. He thinks he 
has found out this, and in laying it before the world brings the following evi- 
dence in support of his conclusion. He says that series of gravels, from the 
very highest point where gravel is found — which he terms the u high gravel 
series” — down to the lowest, all, form one series. He finds that they were 
deposited before there is any evidence of the action of ice having taken 
place ; and he makes the gravel period comprise the whole period of 
the tertiary deposits— the eocene, the miocene, and the pliocene. He states 
that, in fact, these gravels are all mastodon gravels. He also says that there is 
no distinction between the gravels of the different levels ; and, therefore, 
draws the conclusion that the remains of man found in the gravels 
on the Pacific slopes indicate the existence of man all through the tertiary 
epoch. He says the course of the streams was the same at the com- 
mencement as now ; and accounts for the gravel as having been made 
by the streams, the “ slow and ordinary working of the streams,” interrupted 
by grand paroxysmal action during which large quantities had been 
dropped and spread over a large area. In the lower parts of these gravels, 
in the “ pay dirt,” gold is found in large quantities, and some gold in the 
upper parts also ; and because the remains of man have been found at 
various places in both these gravels he attributes the remains that have 
been found to the same period as the gravels, i.e ., the tertiary period. I 
have myself had an opportunity during the last autumn of visiting the 
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and of examining these gravels with 
the haste which a casual traveller can only regret to be obliged to use in his 
investigations. But I will just mention two facts of observation which I 
made as to Professor Whitney’s discoveries, and which I mention with very 
great submission, because he has been almost all his life at the work. In the 
first place, on going over the prairies to the Rocky Mountains, you rise 
