The morning call., 1892-09-16
PREHIsToKIo ExPLOKATIoNs.

The archaeological explorations which are
being conducted in the town or Alameda at
the suggestion of THE CALL will probably
set at rest the doubts which have been en-
terIained touching the age OF the human
remains found on this coast. Ever since
the American occupation such remains have
been turned up by the spade and the plow
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 prog
nathous, and the bones have occurred in
conjunction with stone arrow heads and
spear heads, stone pestles and mortars, and
not infrequently with heaps of shells like
the shell mounds which are called kitchen
mcddings in Denmark. They have gem
orally been found five to ten feet below the
surface In an alluVial deposit. At one time
it was supposed that these remains were
contemporaneous with the relics OF the
mound builders of Ohio. Indiana and Wis
cOnsin. 1t was even suggested that they
might be coeyal with the Tribe to which the
owner Of the Caayeras skull belonged.
But investigation long ago led to the con-
clusOn 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 damp alluvium, they would not pre-
serve their shape for more than one or, at
most. two centuries. 1t is only under ex-
ceptionally favorable circumstances that
human skull or human bone will retain
its form seven or eight hundred years after
it hes 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 their corn
IN stone mortars with stone peStles. There
is thus nothing to forbid the hypothesis
that these remains are those of race which
inhabited California long after the occupa-
tion of the Atlantic States and Of Mexico by
Europeans, and there is much TO confirm
that theory.
II prehistoric man-in the sense in which
the word is commonly uSed-is ever disc0v-
cred in California he will probably be found,
as the Calaveras skull was found, in the
drift which overlies the limestone or the
primeYal rock. There is every reason 10
believe that man existed in the diluvial
period, especially in places as to which it is
uncertain whether they were ever covered
by the glacial deposit. Doubts on the ques-
ton 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, if we eX-
cept the CalaYeras skull aud one other In
most Of the countries of Eur pc the drift is
rich in human remains. In this State,
where the pursuit of gold has led to vigor-
GUS prospecting in the drift, no such dis
coverIes have been made. But still the
presumption Is so strong that man existed
al the time gold was carried down by the
floods into river-beds that we are driven 10
regard the non-discoVery of his remains as
aeeldensI.
What manner Of man he will turn out TO
be when he is found is matter of conjecture.
The pTimeYal American, as unearthed else
where, was Of short stature, and his head
was prognath0us-that is to say. the facial
angle was acute. as ii is in the brute creation.
A few years ago some remarkable skulls
were found in Oregon by scientist who is
now connected with the Metropolitan Mu-
scum in Central Park. New York. They
resembled the skulls of sheep. and yet there
is no doubt that they were human. An ex-
animation OF their form led to the idea that
they came nearer to the connecting link be-
tween man and tie brute creation than any
other skulls which had been dug out Of the
earth.
IN scientific discovery, the next thing to
the evolution of a truth is the explosion of
an error. THE CALLS explorations in Ala
media County will perhaps set at rest the
anXietes of those who have dreamed of q
prehistoric race on this coast; and in SO
doing they will render a service to science.
Indian pestles and mortars. made CT stone,
have long been familiar objects. Any one
who takes an interest in such curios can fill
wheelbarrow with them on the shore Of
San Pablo Bay,