The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-09-12
Important Discovery.

A geological discovery of great interest and
inheritance has recently been made in Cali
fornia A paper read by Professor Whitney
before the California Academy of Natural
Sciences gives the details of the finding of a
human skull in the pleiocene formation, a
rock much older than the las in which are
| imbedded those ancient human bones found
in Europe, the discovery of which has been
made the basis of Sir Charles Lyelrs great
work on the antiquity of man. Hitherto
these relics in the las, found mainly in Eng
land and France, have been supposed to marx
the earliest period of mans existence ON ,ne
earth, but it would seem from TINS new oi'
covery that he has had his ABODE mere io' -.
| immeasuraby greater length OF Time We
are accustomed to speak of America is 1he
New World. because its authentic human MS
tory il of so recent a date; this, TOO, hoe"i'n-
standing the fact well-known to geologlsts
ttot ;,s Iond Is of older formation than that of
the Eastern Continent. The discovery an
nounced by Professor Whitney is not simply
| a matter of deep interest to the scientific
world. 1t is fact calculated to impress most
wildly the imagination of any person who
realizes it that in the newest portion OF the
New World, where antiquity is not and where
history has only begun to be made, we should
come upon traces of the very earliest human
existence yet found upon the earth. This
skull is the remnant not only of the earliest
known Califol MIA pioneer, but the OLDEST
KNOWN HUMAN BEING.
The San Francisco Alta gives the following
account of the discovery:
"The skull was found in shaft 100 feet deep,
two miles distant from St. Angels in Calaveras
county, by miner named James Matson, who
gave it to Mr.. Scribner merchant and he gave
it to DR.. Jones, who sent it to the State Geo
logical Survey, Prot whitney went TO the
place, examined it, questioned the persons who
had had the skull in their possession, and he is
entirely satisfied that it was found in the shaft,
but it is to be taken out, and then the Profess
or will resume his examinations. The shaft
passes through five beds of lava and volcanic
tufa, and four deposits of auriferous gravel
The upper bed of tufa is homogeneous and with
out any crack through which the skull could
have been introduced from above. The publish
ed volume of the State Survey on the Geology
of California States that man existed here CO.
temporaneously with the mastodon, but this
in which the mastodon was known to exist.
Prof Whitney has divided the animal pala-
anthology of the State into two epochs-the
pleiocene, or the epoch before the great volcan-
ic eruptions which covered large. part Of the
State, and the post-pleiocene, or the epoch af-
ter the eruptions. Most Of the prominent ami
mails, the fossils of which have been found
here, such as the mastodon, elephant, horse
and buffalo, have not been encountered in the
post-pleiocene, and all the vegetables so far
met there are of species not now living, in the
State. We can now say unqualifedly that
man lived in California before Shasta and
Mount Lassen and the Downieville Buttes
and the numerous volcanic peakes of the Sier
"a raised their heads to the clouds; before the
era of the glaciers, which came after the volca-
noes and swept down the mountain sides in
immense rivers Office; before the great canons
were worn on the western slope of the Sierra
Nevada, and when the rivers were still running
on what are now the tops of the mountains
Casts Of the skull which is not entire, will be
sent to the principal ethnologists of Europe
and the Atlantic States, with requests for their
opinion oft. The facial angle is very similar
to that of Digger Indian of the present day.