The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1911-02-07
AN OLD STORY REVIVED

AN OLD STORY REVIVED
Lately articles have appeared in the
state press, from time to time, concern
ing tracks found in rocks in different
sections of Nevada. That these dis
coveries are nothing new will be seen
from the following article taken from
the Silver State of August 3, 1882:
The discovery of tracks in the quarry
at the state prison in Carson created
quite a furry among the local scient-
lists and brought up several eminent
gentlemen from California to examine
them critically. DIR. Hardness brought
materials for taking photographs and
also tracts of them on canvas, showing
their direction and mutual relations.
They will be poured full of plaster of
paris and exact casts made of them.
Professor LIE Compile, of the state uni
versity of California, spent some time
in examining the tracks, and he says
that while they are very interesting
they teach nothing new. There are the
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track which he thinks is that of a
He says some persons are entirely con-
WINGED that they are human, but he
is more cautious. While he believes
them to be so, still there are doubts.
The track is so large, being nearly 20
inches, that it seems impossible that
any human being ever lived with a
foot capable of making such an inn
print. If it was a foot, it was wrapped
in something soft and pliable, or wore
a sandal Of some sort. The peculiar
outline of the human foot is distinct.
The curved outline,th heel bending in
ward, the broad ball and wide front,
with the inward curve at the hollow on
the inside of the foot, are still there.
The professor says he looked carefully
to see if it could be the footprint of
q bear or some animal, but found no
marks of claws or toes which would be
part of a bear track. He tried to i'm
agine an animal which stepped with his
hind foot into the track Of his fore foot
and made such an impression, but he
found nothing to indicate it.. Being
asked if if it might be a foot wrapped
in bark or skins as a defense against
cold, he thought not, because if it was
cold, the mud would be frozen and there
would nave been no impression. 1t
could hardly be that the foot was
wrapped to keep the body from
pressing it into the mud, as snowshoes
are worn, for then the outline of the
foot would not be preserved. On the
whole the human track is a puzzle. One
thing remarkable about it is the dis
lance between the lines of the tracks
made by the right and left foot-the
straddle-which is about eighteen
inches. The length of the stride is that
Of a common man, being less than three
feet, but tbs size of the foot and the
distance between them we're those of a
giant. 1t will be considered carefully
by men of science everywhere, and no
doubt more light will come. The track
Of the mammoth is about such a one as
would be made by the one in Professor
Wards collection now on exhibition in
San Francisco. The professor thinks
the prints were probably made on the
bank, perhaps near the mouth Of the
river, and soon after a flood came
down and spread a layer of sand on
them, which was followed in years by
the large deposit which became the
rock now seen there. The professor as
signs the tracks to a period at least as
far back as the glacial epoch,
and thinks perhaps they belong to the
pliocene. There seems to be no great
significance in the fact of finding
human tracks (if they are human) with
those of the mammoth, because it has
been long known that man appeared ON
earth before the mammoth became ex-
tinct. Still the discovery is very in
teresting to science and may lead to