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 holmes] A URIFERO US GRA VEL MAN 63 1

Later, Dr Hudson visited Dr Walker at Sonora, but made up his mind that the Doctor had little actual knowledge of the matter, and slight foundation for his assertion " that the whole affair was a fabrication and a joke on Whitney." Going on to Angels, he interviewed Scribner and Mattison. He was most favorably impressed with Mr Scribner, who in a dignified and convincing manner assured him that Dr Walker was wrong, and that no deception whatever had been practiced. Having gathered all the facts in the case that Scribner cared to impart, the Doctor visited Mr Mattison, "the veritable miner and sup- posed discoverer of the head of our inquiry. Fortunately he and his wife were found at home, and without hesitation proceeded to relate the story, with the steps which brought the find to light. The man's wife had a better memory than he, and she seemed to be equally well informed about it. Thus I was fur- nished with two witnesses in one home. It was said : Late in the year 1865 he, Matson, began to dig for gold. He sank his shaft in Bald mountain and not Table mountain. . . . Reaching the depth of 128 feet the industrious miner struck some old wood. Here in neighborly pose the remains of vegetable and animal [human] life were found. They were found imbedded in gravel and a kind of cement, which he thought was wood also. Taking the round or globular dirt-covered bundle home, he said nothing about it to his family, but kept it in his house a year or more. Here I showed Matson and his wife the figure or cut copied from Professor Whitney's book. . ' . . Mrs Matson at once recognized the picture as representing the specimen in ques- tion. It was said the cemented gravel so adhered to it as to fill out the back head and make it look a natural occipital portion."

Account Given by Mr Scribner. — Dr Hudson left Calaveras county " perplexed and discouraged." The stories told him seemed " incomplete and incoherent." " But," he continues, " some two weeks later Mr Scribner called at our office in Stock- ton with the welcome errand of a refreshed memory, and with

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