PRELIMINARY REVISION OF THE EVIDENCE RE- LATING TO AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN
IN CALIFORNIA
By WILLIAM H. HOLMES
FIRST PAPER
INTRODUCTORY
During recent years much has been said and written regarding the antiquity of man in America, and as opportunity has presented I have engaged in the discussion of the subject, endeavoring to determine the exact value of the evidence brought forward by the various observers. By far the strongest body of data tending to establish the existence of a man of great antiquity is that emanating from the gold belt of California, and first brought to- gether by Prof. James D. Whitney and published in his notable work on the Auriferous gravels. 1 There is considerable literature embodying original observations outside of this volume, the most important contribution being a paper by Dr George F. Becker, published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America for 1891.
For a long time I have entertained the idea of visiting the Pacific slope for the purpose of becoming personally acquainted with the region furnishing the evidence, and with the people, so far as the hand of time has spared them, familiar with the golden era of California. I hoped at least to see enough to enable me to make up my own mind as to the value of the evidence, and it seemed within the range of possibility that something decisive in the way of new evidence, or of side lights on the old, might de-
1 J. D. Whitney, The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of Ca/ifornia, Cambridge, 1879, v °l- VI » No. 1 (1st part).
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