Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-12-06
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Evidence OF People Who Existed
Since Columbus Time.

W [hldthSOtL, NdL.S Will PIOOuOtJ oSb ob
rest the doubts which have been enter
tanned touching the 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 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 prognathous,
and the bones have occurred In con-
junction with stone arrowhcads and
spearheads, stone pcstles and nortars,
and not infrcquently with heaps of
shells like the sncll mounds which are
called kitchen holdings 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 contcmpO-
rancous with the relics of mound
builders. of Ohio, Indiana and Wiscon-
sin. 1t was even suggested that they:
| might be cocval with the tribe to which
| the owner of the Cflaveras 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 arc found forbids the theory that
they can be very ancient. Lying as
they do in n bed of unuviuIn, they
would not preserve their shape for one
or, ut most, two centuries. 1t is only
under exceptionally favorable circum-
stances that Il human skull or 4 human
bone will retain Its form seven hun
dred or eight hundred years after it has
been buried, and some of the mounds in
the river states must be rs old as that.
1t is known that the Indians who were
| found here by the Spaniards used
weapons tipped with stone, having
no owle(lgc of the metals. and that
| they ground thcif corn in stone mortarS
with stone pcstles. here is thus
| nothing to forbid the hypothesis that
these remains are those of q 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 man---in 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. in the drift which
| overlies the limestone or the primeval
rock. There is every reason to believe
! that man existed in the diluvial period,
| especially in places as to which it is I'M
| 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
-, -
averas slSull 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 OK
listed at the time gold was carried down
| by the floods into the river beds that
we arc driven to regard the nondiscoy-
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 uucarthcd elsewhere, was of short
stature, and his head was prognathous
! that is to say, the facial angle was
acute, Gs 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 skrals Of
sheep, and yet there is no doubt that
thry were human. An examination of
their form led to the idea that they
came nearer to the connecting linl; be-
tween man and the brute creature than
any other skulls which had been dug
out Of the Garth.
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 ut
! rest the anxieties of those who have
drcomcd of u prehistoric race on this
coast and in 80 doing they will render
a service to science. Indian pestles and
mortarS made Of stone have been famil-