56 Discovery of Stone Implements in [January, 
that the human bone was in the same state of preservation 
and of the same black colour as the bones of the mastodon 
and megalonyx, said to have been found with it ; and he was 
disposed to think that he had discussed its probable age 
with a stronger bias, as to the antecedent improbability of 
the contemporaneous entombment of man and the mas- 
todon, than any geologist would now be justified in enter- 
taining. * * * § 
The fragment of a human skull from Calaveras, in Cali- 
fornia, which was said to have been found in gravel beneath 
five successive overflows of lava, would, if authenticated, be 
probably the oldest record of man in North America. The 
same doubts, however, have been expressed about it as about 
the Natchez remains, no geologist being present when it 
was exhumed. In the newer gold-drifts of California, along 
with the remains of the mastodon, elephant, tapir, bison, 
and horse, the implements of man have been frequently 
found. t 
In the auriferous gravels of Kansas and Georgia stone 
and flint implements have also been discovered.! 
Dr. Samuel Aughey, in his account of the superficial 
deposits of Nebraska, states that the remains of elephants 
and mastodons are often found in the loess that overspreads 
nearly the whole of the State. In this deposit, in a railway- 
cutting near Omaha, 20 feet from the surface, he dug out 
himself a large coarse arrow- or spear-head which lay 
13 inches below the lumbar vertebra of Elephas ameri- 
canus. || 
Near Alton, in Illinois, stone axes and flint spear-heads 
along with the bones of the mastodon are reported from 
drift below loess. § 
All the above discoveries are in regions that drain either 
into the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico. 
Mr. Ch as. M. Wallace has described the discovery by him 
of flint implements in stratified drift near Richmond, Vir- 
ginia. IT These deposits seem to be similar to those in which 
Dr. Abbott has made his discoveries in New Jersey. The 
valley of the James River is mantled by thick deposits of 
coarse gravel covered with brick-clays. The implements 
have been found occasionally in the clay, and more frequently 
* Antiquity of Man, first edition, p. 200. 
f J. D. Whitney, Geol. Surv. California, vol. i., p. 252. 
X Dr. D. Wilson, Canadian Journal of Science, October, 1877, pp. 559, 
560. 
|| Geol. Surv. of the Territories, 1876, p. 254. 
§ Geol. Surv. Illinois, 1866, vol. i., p. 38. 
H Amer. Journ. Science, March, 1876, vol. xi., p. 195. 
