Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-16
MYSTERIOUS TRACKS IN STONE.
The Footprints OF q MastOdon and
OF a Human Being Believed 10 be
Imprinted In the same ROCK.
San Frunciaco fcall eau. Auoust4

San francisco (Cal) Cal. Aps0Ist4.
The discovery of tracks in the quarry
at the State prison at Carson, Nevada,
created quite dutter among the local
scientists, and brought up several emf
nent gentlemen from California to ex-
anime them critically. DR.. Hardness
brought materials for taking photographs
and also traces of them on canvas show.
ing their direction and mutual relations.
They will be poured full of plaster of
paris and exact casts made of them.
Prof. lie Conte, of the State University
in examining the tracks, and he
informs the Reno Gazette that
while they are very interesting they
teach nothing new. There are the tracks
of the mammoth and another track
which he thinks is that of a man. He
says some persons are entirely convinced
that they are human, but he is more eau
tiOus. While he believes them to be so,
still there are doubts The track is so
large, being nearly twenty inches, that it
seems impossible that any human being
ever Lived with a foot capable of making
such an imprint. If it was foot it was
wrapped up in something soft and plia-
bic, or wore sandal of some sort. The
peculiar outline of the human foot is
distinct. The curved outside, the heel
bending inward, the broad ball and wide
front, with the inward curve at the
hollow on the inside of the foot, are still
there. The Professor says he looked
carefully to see if it could be the foot
print OF bear or some animal, but found
no marks of claws or toes, which would
be part of bear track. He tried to
imagine an animal which stepped with
his hind foot into the tracks of his
fore foot and made such an i'm
preston, but he found nothing to indi-
cate it. Being asked if it might be
foot wrapped in bark or skins as de-
Tense of cold, he thought not, because
if it was cold the mud would be frozen
and there would have been no impress
sion. 1t could hardly be that the foot
was wrapped to keep the body from
pressing it into the mud, as snow shoes
are worn, for then the outline of the foot
would not be preserved On the whole
the human track is puzzle. One thing
remarkable about 1t is the distance be-
tween the lines of the tracks made by
the right and left foot (the Sstraddle).
which is about eighteen inches. The
length of the stride is that of a common
man, being less than three feet, but the
size of the foot and the distance between
them were those of giant. 1t will be
considered carefully by men of science,
and no doubt more light will come.
The track of the mammoth is
about such a one as would be
made by the one in Professor Wards
collection now on exhibition In San
Francisco The Professor thinks the
prints were probably made in the soft
mud on the bank, perhaps near the
mouth of a river, and soon after spring
flood came down and spread layer of
sand on them, which was followed in
years by the large deposit which became
the rock now seen there. The Professor
assigns the tracks to a period at least as
far back as the glacial epoch, and thinks
perhaps they belong to the pliocene.
There seems to be no great significance
in the fact of finding human tracks Gf
they are humaD) with those of the mann
moth, because it has been long known
that man appeared on earth before
the mammoth became extinct. Still
the discovery is very interesting to sci
ence, and may lead to important results.