Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/138

 holmes] A URIFEROUS CRA VEL MAN 1 1 5

such as might be expected of a Tertiary man, and observed: " It has been always the same kind of implements which have been exhibited to us, namely : the coarsest and least finished which one would suppose could be made and still be implements." 1 But on examination we find that they are really of advanced types, and comprise the following varieties : Mortars (several forms), pestles (numerous forms), platters (dishes, metates), mullers (rubbing stones), hammerstones, handled ladles ("scoops"), plummet stones, rings of stone (" doughnuts "), pitted disks, shuttle-shape stones, grooved pebbles (hammerheads, sinkers), crescent stones, spearheads, arrowheads, knives, and broad blades, to which may be added stone beads and wampum.

The series of sketches presented in plate VI will convey a definite idea of the character of some of these objects and make apparent their practical identity with the familiar relics of our California tribes. The assertion that man shaped and used this group of artifacts in Tertiary times and continued to use them without change, without improvement or retrogression, down through the ages, through complete transformations of land and sea, and the extinction of all known living things, should be supported by proof more conclusive than anything yet adduced.

To suppose again that the ancient people disappeared as a result of nature's mutations, leaving their bones and handiwork in the stream beds of the Neocene period, and that another people, springing up or appearing on the same spot in recent years, have duplicated each and every character, activity, and art form, is to suppose the impossible.

Another consideration is interesting in this connection. Should we feel compelled to concede the existence of a race of advanced stone-age culture, such as that suggested by the group of artifacts presented, it would necessitate the further conces- sion that the origin of the race was to be looked for in a still earlier period, for the best experience of anthropologists goes to

1 A uriferous Gravels, p. 279.

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