The weekly Placer herald., 1853-08-06
From the Placervilie Herald.
DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT
AMERICAN PYRAMID.

ia arher tributaries, have long since spoken
of the existence of ancient ruins in diff
Serent localities, embraced by the great
American Desert, lying upon both, though
principally upon the west bank Of the Col
orado, and between it and the California
range of mountains. Even Baron Won
Humboldt, during his researches upon the
American Continent, discovered unmis-
sakabe evidence of the existence, at some
great remote period, race of people en-
trely unlike, and apparently superior, to
those inhabiting the continent at the time
of its discovery by Europeans.
These evidences are becoming every
day more and more conclusive, AS the en-
ergy, love of travel and novelty of tho
American people, leads them to earth's
widest Businesses, and over its most for
bidding, sterile and inhospitab!e wastes.
We remark, as above, in perusing an ar
tcle from the pen of our San Bernardino
correspondent, giving an account of an
ancient pyramid, lately discovered upon
the great desert of the Colorado, by
party of adventures, five in number, who
attempted to cross the desert in a westerly
direction from point on the Colorado, at
least two hundred miles above it's con-
fluence with the ella.
San Bernardino Talley, June IS, '53.
Dear Brother: There have been no
little excitement here, of late, among the
antiquarans and the curious, arising from
the discovery of an ancient pyramid upon
the great Colorado desert, and which fixes
the probability beyond all dispute, of the
possession and occupancy, at some great
ly remote period of time, of the Ameri-
can Continent, by race of people, Of
whom all existing history is silent A
party of men, five in number, had ascend
ed the Colorado for nearly two hundred
miles avove the mouth of the Gila. Their
object being to discover, if possible, some
large tributary from the west, by which
they might make the passage of the desert
and enter California by new, more di-
rect, and easier route, inasmuch as there
are known to exist numerous small
streams upon the eastern slope of the
mountains, that are either lost in the sands
of the desert or unite with the Colorado,
through tributaries heretofore unknown.
They represent the country on either side
of the Colorado, as almost totally barren
of every vegetable product, and SO level
and monotonous, that any Object sufficient
to arrest the attention, possesses more or
less of curiosity and interest; and it was
this that led to the discovery and examiE-
;ntion of this hitherto unknown relict cf a
forgotten age.
An object appeared upon the plain to
the west, having so much the appearance
af work of art, from the regularity of
its outline and its isolated position, that
ithe party determined upon visiting it.
Passing over an almost barren sand plain;
distance of nearly five miles, they reach
led the base ofNone of the most wonderful
objects, considering its location, Git being
the very home of desolation,) that the
nina can Fossiby conceive of; nothing
Tess than on'inmense stone pyramid, com
posed Of layers or courses Of from eight
cen inches to nearly three feet in thick
ness, and from five to eight feet in length.
Ut has level top of more than fifty feet
square, though it is evident that it was
once completed, but that some great con-
vusion of nature has displaced its entire
top, as it evidently now lies in huge and
broken mass upon one Of its sides, though
nearly covered by the sands.
This pyramid differs, in some respects,
from the Egyptian pyramid; it is, or was,
more slender or pointed, and while those
OF Egypt are composed of steps or layers,
recedng as they rise, the American pyra-
mid was, undoubtedly, a more finished
structure, when new and complete, a
smooth or regular surface from top to
bottom.
From the present level of the sands that
surround it, there are fifty-two distinct
layers of stone, that will average at least
two feet; this gives its present hight one
hundred and four feet, so that before the
top was displaced, it must have been,
Judging from an angle of its sides, at
least twenty-five feet higher than at pres
'ent. How far it extends beneath the
sands, is impossible to determine, without
great labor.
Such is the age of this immense struc-
ture, that the perpendicular joints be-
tween the blocks are worn away to the
width of from five to ten inches at the
notion Of each Joint, and the entire of
tne pyramid so much worn by the storms,
i1ne vIcIssltudes and the corrodings of CEN
lures, as to make it easy of ascent; par
ucularly on one of its sides. We say
one OF its sides, because singular fact
connected with this remarkable structure
u.s. that it inclines nearly ten degrees to
one rs slde OF the vertical or perpendicular.
mere is not the slightest probability
5!ha! 1t was thus erected, but the cause Of
us inclination is not easily accounted for.
ny whom, at what age Of the world, and