The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1888-06-02
GIGANTIC FOSSILS.

GIGANTIC FOSSILS.
The oldest Relics ON the Continent Found
In californi.-TigersM Much Bigger
than the Royal Bengal.
At the monthly meeting of the Cali
fornia Historical society the subject
under discussion was a paper on Pre-
historic California" written by Ur.
Lorenzo G. Yates.
The paper laid down three propo-
sitions-namely, that climatic ex-
tremities are not favorable to human
progress; that geology furnishes pages
of facts long antedating written history
and tribal traditions, and that in Cali
fornia have been and are found the
oldest known relics on the continent.
In this state are found the relics of two
different and widely-separated periods
of occupation before the arrival OF
Europeans:
The first authenticated record of the
original occupants was found on the
table mountain region in Tuolume
county, and of an age prior to the
great volcanic outburst. Fossil re-
mains of the rhinoceros and of an ex-
tinct horse are found under the lava
layers forming the Table mountains.
which are l, 400 feet thick, 1,7OO feet
wide, and many hundreds of feet high.
where the river beds have been washed
out and have been covered again to the
depth of from 5000 to 4,OOO feet more
since the f1ow of the lava. This lava
rests on bed of detritus, which is
often entered in running tunnels. The
human relics and stone implements
found in these formations give evidence
of human inhabitants differing from
any known since. There have been
found spear-heads, pipe of polished
stone, two scoops of rock. resembling
the grocers' scoop; an implement OF
aragonite resembling an unbent bow.
but the use of which is unknown and
can not be conjectured; stone needle,
with notches at the larger end, and the
finest charm stones that have ever been
found. These relics, so accidentally
found, differ so much in character and
workmanship as to indicate the exist
ence of race entirely different and
possessed of more artistic skill and
mechanical ability than any known
since.
The relics of the races after foreign
habitation are plentifully found in
bones in the Devils cannon, in Placer,
and in Calaveras. Mammal fossils are
to be unearthed in various localities,
and there have been brought to- light
the fossils of nine mastodons, twenty
elephants, various pachyderms in the
Table mountains, numerous evidences
of animal life in the calcareous forma-
tionsefn the Texas flats, spear heads,
fossils of the elephant, horse and camel
! about Hornitas, bones and evidences
of prehistoric human industry in
Tulare, and in Trinity and Siskiyou
many proofs of the contemporaneous
existence of man and extinct man.
mails.
The elephants were larger in size
than the largest of tropical climes; the
llama was eighteen feet high. beside
which the animal of Central America
would be baby; the tiger was larger
than the largest royal Bengal. besides
which there were monster horses and
oxen. The remains of these are plenti-
fully found in Alameda county, not far
from Centerville.
In the San Jose valley are deep lay
ers of coniferous trees in such a car
bonized state that they crumble into
dust when exposed to the air. They
are of the pliocene period, and show
that the entire topography of the region
has changed, and that where now the
valleys and mountains are destitute of
timber there were once coniferous and
deciduous trees. affording food and
shelter to monster mammals, in COM
parison to which man was but an in
significant mite.
In the layers of the miocene period
are found in California the remains of
amphibious animals not to be found
elsewhere, but nowhere now does there
exist on the northern continent =
| species of the mammalia which had ffc
and existence there. 1t isquestiohahle
declared the writer of the paper,
whether any relics have been left ofthe
race which existed after the volcanic
cataclysm, after which also the country
assumed its present appearances.
Taken all in all, the prehistoric Cali
fcrnian was q being who enjoyed q
careless, lazy life. accounting for the
fact that there have not been found any
castles or Notifications such as are in
the Miami valley, or symbollcal
mounds. The ''sweat-houses" and
shell-mounds are the work of a later
race, the race generally cast up. near
water courses, rivers. or bay shores.
They show no design of outline or pur-
pose, and are the accumulations OF
camp debris. They were used for
habitation as well as burial purposes