The San Francisco call., 1898-03-19

The publication in The Call yesterday morning of the finding of it's expedi- tion to the prehistoric turquoise mines in the wilds of San Bernardino County has aroused the greatest interest among scientific and mining men as we'll as the general public.
 The scientific men all agree that It IS the greatest archaeological discovery ever made in California and prophecy that 1t will have a farreaching effect in determining the origin of the original tribes of North America. It is gener- ally agreed that the country about the turquoise mines has never been ex- plored and the work done by The Call expedition is sure to be of the greatest value to students in general.
 The miners are deeply interested in the discovery, but cannot give an opin- ion as to the commercial value or the product of the mines until they nave been further developed. All agree, however that such vast heldS or tur- Quoise have never before been heard or and see no reason to fear why good stones should not be found there Those who have examined the rough stones brought up by the expedition declare them to be of a fine quality
 The discovery has also aroused great interest among the scientists at Berke- ley, and they do not hesitate 10 pro- nounce the discovery as one or great importance and interest from miner alogical as well as an archaeological standopint. The results of the eXpe- dition are regarded with especial in tereSt, inasmuch as the region in Whlch the discoveries were made has never before been explored by the archeolo- gist, and is one of the completely un- investigated regions of California.
 Following are the opinions of few eminent men in regard to the discov- cry:
 Professor Le COnte.
 "So far as I am aware the field has never before been touched" said Pro- lessor Joseph Le Conte, the venerable expert on geology and natural history when seen this afternoon in his study at the university. While 1 am not sufficiently expert in archaeology nor sufficiently familiar with the facts of the discovery to form very pro- nounced Judgment. I regard the dis covery as one of importance from the archaeological point of view.
 Never, so far as l know, have tur- quoises been discovered in that part of the country before. Discoveries have been made on the Pacific Coast, how ever, in Oregon Or Washington, l be- lieve. and they have generally been closely associated with extensive lava fields. All through the region where the discoveries were made such lava fields are known to abound.
 Undoubtedly the people who worked the mines and graved the strange characters on the walls of rock are the same tribe that constructed extensive irrigation works and built rude cities o1 Yer1, hn o1f Zona. This is the first trace of them in California, and whether they pressed on westward to the Pacific Coast Is an interesting matter of conjecture. While l doubt whether the strange characters found upon the stones are true hieroglyphics in the sense in which we apply the term to the hiero- glyph1cs of Egypt, the rude signs and pictures are of great interest to the archaeologist What the discovery will amount to from commercial point of view is, of course, merely a matter of