284 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
of belief of every expert almost to breaking point. The 
skull itself — or what was found of it, for the greater 
part of the vault was missing — is now preserved in the 
Peabody Museum of Harvard University. It passed 
into the Peabody Museum in the following manner. 
Soon after its discovery in 1 866, Professor J. D, Whitney, 
State Geologist of California, having verified its reputed 
history, brought the skull to Harvard University, and 
examined it in conjunction with Professor Jeffreys Wyman, 
one of the most skilled anatomists then living. The 
matrix of gravel which adhered to the skull was observed 
to be similar in character to that of the gold-bearing 
stratum in which the skull is said to have been found. 
In Professor Wyman's opinion, there were no signs of 
an inferior race in the characters of the skull. " It 
agreed," he wrote, "with other crania from California." 
A recent examination by Dr Hrdlicka confirms Professor 
Wyman's observations. On searching the great collection 
of human crania in the National Museum at Washington, 
Dr Hrdlicka found two crania and some fragments of 
skulls from caves in Calaveras county, California, collected 
in 1857. One of these cave skulls is, in all essential 
features, closely related to the Calaveras specimen. The 
cave skulls show a greyish, calcareous, stalagmitic deposit, 
much like that which partially covers the Calaveras skull. 
In Dr Hrdlicka's opinion, the infiltration and fossilisation 
of the Calaveras skull furnishes no test of its antiquity. 
The fact that the Calaveras skull is similar in form and 
in state of preservation to Indian skulls found in the 
Calaveras county must raise a suspicion as to the 
authenticity of the original specimen. It does not prove, 
however, that the original specimen is not really ancient. 
We have seen from the discoveries made in the loess 
deposits how persistent the American-Indian type may be. 
If we regard the Calaveras skull as really a cave 
specimen, in spite of its history, there still remain other 
mysteries connected with the ancient bed of the Stanislas 
even more difficult of solution. The skull was not the 
only evidence of man in the ancient gold-bearing river 
