Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-09-21
A CITY One Hundred. and Eighty
Thousand Years Old.


In the current number of the Over
land California geologist reviews the
geological evidence of the antiquity OF a
human settlement near the present town
Of Cherokee, in that State, and estimates
the age Of that most ancient of discov-
cred towns to be not less than 10000
years. The data for all such calcula.
tions are necessarily uncertain, as they
are derived from the present rates OF
erosion; Btill, from the changes that have
taken place since the pioneers of pre-
historic California left their traces on
its ancient sea-shore, there can be no
doubt that thousands of centuries must
have come and gone.
The traces in question are numerous
stone mortars found in undisturbed
white and yellow gravel OF subaqueous
formation, not fuyiatile, underlying the
vast sheets of volcanic rock of which
Table Mountain is part. In one iu-
stance mortar was found standing up
right, with the pestle in it, apparently
just as it had been left by its owner. In
some cases the mortars hage been found
at the depth Of forty feet from the sur
face of the gravel underlying Table
Mountain. The distribution of the NOR
tars is such as to indicate with great
positiveness the former existence of
human settlement on that ancient beach
when the water stood near the level at
which they occur; time anterior to the
volcanic outpouring which Table Noun
tain records, and anterior to the glacial
epoch.
The recent geological history Of that
region may be briefly summed as follows:
Previous TO the placing of the mortars
10 the position in which they have been
found, the early and middle tertiary sea
level had receded to the position Of the
coal beds underlying Table Mountain,
1000 feet below the level Of Cherokee.
Subsequently, in the pliocene period,
there was further subsistence OF about
1900 feet something like 800 feet occur
ring after the mortars had been aban-
doned. All this, as has been noticed,
took place before the volcanic outhows
which covered up all the ancient detritus
of the region, including that of the an
cient rivers Whose gravels have fur
nished so much Of the gold Of Califor.
MAJ. The geological age of the river
period was determined by Lesquereux
from specimens of vegetation, now. .ex-
tinct, collected in the survey Of the an.
cient rivers; specimens Indicating fora
Of the pliocene age retaining some char
acteristic miocene form.
After the volcanic period the land rose
again, the time of emergence embracing
the glacial period and the new eroding
period in the sierra, during which the
states and hard metamorphic green
stones and the GRANTEES were slashed
with canons 5000 feet deep by the action
of ice and running water. Taking the
rates of continental movement deter
mined by Lyell, our geologst calculates
that the time required for the changes
thus outlined could not have been less
than 1900 centuries. For period so
long preceding the glacial epoch as the
time when ancient Cherokee was buried
by the waters Of the advancing sea, his
estimate is certainly not extravagant,
though it does transcend so enormously
the time men have been accustomed to
allow for mans residence on earth.