Antiquities from Under Tuolumne Table Mountain in California

Introduction Human Remains in California .—It is well known that implements and human bones have been reported from beneath the great lava-flows which cover many of the auriferous gravel deposits of California. From the same gravels the partially fossilized bones of extinct quadrupeds have been obtained, as well as many plants. The plants were regarded as Tertiary by Lesquereux; and some at least of the mammals, such as Rhinoceros hesperius, are generally recognized as Pliocene, while others, for instance Mastodon americanus, occur in the Quaternary if they are not confined to it. It was held by Whitney that the gravels were Pliocene, and this view has met with very general acceptance. The accumulation of the gravels and the eruption of the flows of lava which forms the cap-rock preceded the glaciation of the Sierra, a fact which lends strong support to the determination of age. The assertion that human remains . . .