The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1895-02-21
THE MAN IN TIE ROCK.
May BE IA Relic of n Forgotten Race, but
Scientific Men Doubt II.

Down in San Luis Obispo county
there has been found a puzzle that has
for weeks perpleXed the scientists of
Stanford university, a puzzle IN the
hardest of rock so beaten and stained
by the weather of ages rs TO bear all
the brands and earmarks OF a genuine
fossil says the San Francisco Chronicle.
1t seems to the uninitiated to be a east
in solid rock of human skeleton,
strangely treasured relic of race that
existed some hundreds or thousands OF
wears ago.
But there are doubts; that is a scien-
fists trump card; to doubt first, last
and always.
The find was made in February near
the hamlet of Rohlan. twelve mics
southeast Of Paso RouicS. Van K. FL
iott. a surveyor, was helping W. +.
GlIiis. superintendent of the san LUIS
Obispo Orchard company, to run some
new lines over the Big track. As they
surveyed they came upon a stretch OF
| rocky ground from which the ran had
washed the thin covering of soil. They
saw something that looked like 4 skcie-
! ton imbeIded in the rock, but on iuves-
tigating more carefully found that the
/ skeleton was part of the rock Itself.
The finders wrote to President Jordan
! about it, but as the university had no
| fund available for the recovery and
! Identification Of fu>>iiiLnd persons the
matter WAS dropped until a few weeks
ago, when DR.. Jor,.ln went to san Luis
! ObispO to attend convention of teach
ers. His attention was again called to
| Al. hn ,,,nla tri,, hnnl- n
to the hills to see the thing for himself.
He was so impressed with it that he de-
| termined to have the curio cut out of
the rock and removed to Palo Alto tor
study.
Prof. j. p. Smith of the geological
department of the university took
charge and with j. ii. Means, Il post
graduate student in geology, Went to
Roblan a week ago. They found that
removal was impossible with the time
and the facilities at their command, and
so, as the next best thing made a plas-
ter cast of the fossil This cast is now
on exhibition in the geological museum
at Stanford.
Prof Smith was asked about the fos-
sill by correspondent and III reply gave
these facts:
The fossil is in the condition of a east
or mold in hard rock, very much indu
rated and weathered. Here and there
it was not carved by some practica
joker The specimen is thirty-sever
inches long, sixteen inches wide ant
consists of a backbone and ribs will
what may be traces of the pelvls. Ih'
number of vertebrp and ribs cannot b'
accurately made out.
The rocks in the vicinity contain nU
merOus invertebr marine shells anC
are undoubtedly of salt water origin
although they now lie l, 400 feet abov
sea level Thus it is easily seen that tn
animal. whatever it may have been, i
older than the San Luis Obispo mount
aims. The rocks are of the middle miO
Gene tertiary age, known as the whit
miocene shale or the Monterey series o
Prof. Lawson.
r Fossilized human remains have bee
found only as far back as quaternar.
T. times. A skull was dug up from tn
pliocene tertiary lava beds of Calavera
county in 1866 but it has not been gen
: orally accepted by geologists as autheu
;, tic. 1t is also very doubtful as to whethe
! the Calaveras lava is Of the tertiary 0
+ quaternary age. Several years ago
:, supposed fossil man was found in tn
q miocene tertiary of France but this wa
= proved a fraud.
O Thus the occurrence of human II
: mains in the middle tertiary age is yer
r doubtful, since the upper miocene, tn
pliocene and the whole of the quaternar
periods have elapsed between that tim
and this. 1t is impossible to measur
a. this extent of time accurately in yeal
or even in centuries, but it must hay
been several hundred thousand year
II since in that time has accumulated tt
greater part of the thick mass of sed
ment out of which the coast range h'
henn formed