The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-12-10
EXTINCTWESTERN RACES
Evidence Of People Who Existed
Since Columbus Time.
Skeletons and Implements of All Kinds
Found in Large Numbers Along
the Shores of the Pa
cific Ocean.

The archaeological explorations
which are being conducted in the town
of Alameda, CAL, will probably set at
rest the doubts which have been enter
tanned touchingthe age Of the human
remains found on the coast. Ever since
the American occupation such remains
have been turned up by the spade and
the pillow in the seaboard counties
They have been found in Alameda,
Contra Costa, Marin. Sonoma, Napa
and Solano counties, and they have
always been identical. The heads of
the skeletons have been prognathous,
and the bones have occurred IN con-
junction with stone arrowheads and
spearheads, stone pestles and mortars,
and not infrequently with heaps of
shells like the shell mounds which are
called kitchen moddings in Denmark.
They have generally been found five to
ten feet below the surface in an allu-
vial deposit. At one time it was sup
posed that the remains were contempt
raneous with the relics of mound
builders of Ohio, Indiana and Wiscon-
sin. 1t was even suggested that they
might be coeval with the tribe to which
the owner of the Calaveras skull be-
longed.
But investigation long ago led the
San Francisco Call to the conclusion
that they must be of much more recent
origin. The condition in which the
bones are found forbids the theory that
they can be very ancient. Lying as
they do in bed of aluvium, they
would not preserve their shape for one
or, at most, two centuries. 1t is only
under exceptionally favorable circum-
stances that human skull or human
bone will retain It's form seven hun
dred or eight hundred years after it has
been buried, and some Of the mounds in
the river states must be as old as that.
1t is known that the Indians who were
found here by the Spaniards used
weapons tipped with stone, having
no knowledge of the metals, and that
they ground thcit corn in stone mortars
with stone pestles. There is thus
nothing to forbid the hypothesis that
these remains are those of a race which
inhabited California long after the oc-
cupation of the Atlantic states and of
Mexico by Europeans, and there is
much to confirm that theory.
If prehistoric MANN the sense in
which the word is commonly used-is
ever discovered in California he will
probably be found as the Calaveras
skull was found, il the drift which
overlies the limestone or the primeval
rock. There is every reason to believe
that man existed in the dfuvial period,
especially in places as to which it IS IN
certain whether they were ever covered
with the glacial deposit. Doubts on the
question have been suggested by the
curious fact that in all the explorations
which have been undertaken to discover
the bed of rivers no human remains
have been found, il we except the Cal
averas skull and one other. In most OF
the countries Of Europe the drift is rich
in human remains. In this state, where
the pursuit of gold has led to vigorous
prospecting in the drift, no such discov-
cries have been made. But still the
presumption is so strong that man ex-
listed at the time gold was carried down
by the floods into the river beds that
we are driven to regard the nondiscov-
cry of his remains as accidental.
What manner of man he will turn
out to be when he is found is matter of
conjecture. The primeval American,
as unearthed elsewhere, was of short
stature, and his head was prognathous
that is to say, the facial angle was
acute, as it is in the brute creature. A
few years ago some remarkable skulls
were found in Oregon by scientist
who is now connected with the Metro
politan museum in Central park, New
York. They resemble the skulls of
sheep, and yet there is no doubt that
they were human. An examination of
their form led to the idea that they
came nearer to the connecting link be-
tween man and the brute creature than
any other skulls which had been dug
out of the earth.
In scientific discovery the next thing
to the evolution of truth is the eXplo-
sion of an error The exploration in
Alameda county will perhaps set at
rest the anxieties of those who have !
dreamed of a prehistoric race on this
coast and in so doing they will render
a service to science. Indian pestlcs and
mortars made of stone have been famil-
lar objects. Anyone who takes an in
terest in such curios can fill wheel
barrow with them on the shore of San
Plabo bay.