Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-01
UNIVERSITY TO BUILD
NEW TENNIS COURTS
THREE TO BE CONSTRUCTED
WITHOUT DELAY
Evidence Presented by Professor to
Prove Man Existed in This
State at an Early
Date


sufficient funds for the construc-
tion of three new tennis courts
on the Hillegass tract. That a college
the size of the University of Califor-
MIA should possess but one tennis court
for the men and one for the women has
| long been a deplorable fact. The
women have this fall constructed a
new tennis court with their own means
and now the regents are to add three
more. They will be placed to the west
! of California field and will be built
| on three different levels. The construc-
/ tion will be asphalt on concrete base
and each court will have a two-inch
| slant to insure drainage. The intercol-
legiate tennis tryouts will begin on
March 2 and will continue all during
that month. A large number of candi-
| dates are out, including some of the
best players of the state. The intercol-
! legiate tennis tournament takes place
on the same day as the intercollegiate
field day.
The department of agriculture has re-
ceived for the past two months reports
| from various parts of the state of the
deVastations wrought by a certain worm
which has eaten the grass and grain
roots. Damage has been reported from
as far north as Marysville to Mariposa
| on the SOuIll, ana from Jlle odll joaquin
| and Sacramento valleys to a consider
able distance into the foothills. The
worm seems to take the roots of the
| growing grain and grass and utterly
| destroys the crop. Experts of the uni
4 versity have been in the field for some
| time studying the problem and they
report that the worst of the damage
| has now been done and things are on
the mend. The worm is the larvae of
the crane fly. They are at this time
practically full grown and before long
will become flies and the damage for
this season will be over. The crane fly
| appears to be peculiar to this locality
and has occurred before. 1t never has
| shown itself in such large numbers as
this year and there Is a strong prospect
that 1t will not recur again next year,
as it has for the last three months.
There seems to be no remedy for the
pest, and untold damage has been
wrought thereby.
The varsity baseball team is progress
| ing well in its work this season. The
practice has been moved to California
| field from the old field, and the men are
showing up well. The problem of
catcher seems to be the hardest which
Coach Dickinson has to solve. The
| last few days have shown several cam
didates of great strength. so the pros
poets are improving. February II the
varsity defeated ST. Mary's by score
of to 2. Yesterday, however, the In
depence won a ragged game by the
score of to 3.
Theory Destroyed by Scientists
A large amount of evidence has been
presented by Prof. j. d. Whitney IN
his memoir on the "Auriferous Gravels
of California" in an effort to prove that
man existed in this state at very
early date. Many of the gravel deposits
from which human remains were thus
reported are quite old, far older than
any other formation known to contain
traces of man. Whitney's evidence con-
sists of affidavits, letters, etc, from per-
sons who made the alleged discoveries
Some of the stone implements mem
toned by them were secured by G. ID
Voy and are now in the Anthropologt-
cal museum at the animated colleges IN
San Francisco. OF the human bones
reported from the gravels, the best
authenticated Is the famous Calaveras
skull at present in the Peabody museum
at Harvard university
During the summer of 1902 the depart
ment of anthropology of the University
of California undertook a critical exam
ination of the entire subject Of the oc-
currence OF a man in the auriferouS
gravels as a part of the general prob
lem of mans first appearance on this
coast. The various localities mentioned
by Whitney were examined geoiogically
and comparisons made as far as pos
sibIe between the rock types repre-
sented by the implements and the char
acter of the gravels from which they
were supposed to have come. Many of
these implements are made from vol
canic rocks which did not exist in the
Sierra Nevada when the gravels from
which they were reported were de-
kposited, This indicates clearly that
fa1 nP "a ar has hnnn U0iYnI
with the old gravels, probably during
the process of mining by the hydraulic
method, as many of the discoveries
were made in mines of this character
This is further confirmed by the fact
that these implements are of the same
type as those used few years ago by
the Indian tribes of the Sierra Nevada.
Some of the discoveries were reported
from gravels lying deep beneath beds
of volcanic rock but wherever a de-
tailed examination has been possible
either the published evidence conflicts
with the facts ascertained by an exam
ination of the locality or the inlple-
ments are of rock types younger than
the gravels said to contain them.
Found in Shaft
The Calaveras skull belongs to the
category of human remains reported
from gravels lying deep beneath lava
flows. 1t is said to have been found
in a shaft on Bald hill, near Altaville.
This skull when it came into the pos
session of Professor Whitney had a
large amout of so-called gravel adher-
ing to 1t. This gravel resembles the
breccia found in caves and is entire
ly different from the gravels underly-
Ing Bald hill. 1t is composed of worn
fragments of limestone, bits of human
bone, charcoal and red oxide of iron
and small pieces of the shells of land
snails, while the gravels from the deep
workings ON Bald hill are stream worn
pebbles of rock derived from an an
Client formation. The association of
material adhering to the skull is the
same as that found in many caves used
by the Indians for burial purposes.
This may be regarded as evidence that
the Calaveras skull was probably OBJ
tained from q cave. 1t may have been
placed in the shaft at Bald hill in order
to deceive the miners working there. or
may have been unintentionally con-
fused later with such skull which had
been placed in the mine, Residents of,I
Angels Camp who were living at the
time the joke is said to have been
perpetrated ON the miners claim that
photographs of the Calaveras skull in
the condition in which 1t came to Pro-
fessor Whitney's hands do not repre-
sent the skull placed in the shaft.
A bulletin covering the Investigations
made by the university's department of
anthropology has been prepared by DIR.
w. J. Sinclair under the title Recent