holmes] A URIFERO US GRA VEL MAN 6 1 5
tude. It is probable that without positive reinforcement the evidence would gradually lose its hold and disappear; but science cannot afford to await this tedious process of selection, and some attempt to hasten a decision is demanded. If new evidence cannot be found, renewed discussion will at least de- velop the full strength or weakness of the old, and it is especially desirable to take this matter up while some of the pioneers of the Sierra are still with us.
It has been shown in a preceding paper that much of the testimony furnished by Whitney is not well considered, and that there is excellent reason for questioning or rejecting most of the observations placed on record regarding the deep finds. The mines of the more northern counties, already referred to in some detail, seem to have furnished nothing that can be relied upon to prove anything more than the presence of the Digger tribes or their immediate predecessors in the region, and it remains now to look critically into the evidence furnished by the vast diggings of the south, and especially in the great valleys of the Tuolumne and the Stanislaus.
TABLE MOUNTAIN REGION
The region of Table mountain in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties has yielded a large part of the testimony most relied on to establish the theory of an Auriferous Gravel man. Here finds have been reported in bewildering numbers, the objects coming from many sources, often apparently wholly independent of one another. During my visit to this region I sought to get back as near as possible to original sources of information, to see the people having personal knowledge of the finds, and to acquire a correct notion of the aboriginal occupancy before, during, and since the great period of mining activity.
India?i Implements in Mines. — Accompanied by Prof. W J McGee, I journeyed from Jamestown, the railway terminus, situated under the eastern escarpment of Table mountain, to
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