holmes] auriferous gra vel man 639
have been obtained, but in his monograph the latter states that he failed to accomplish this on account of the water in the mine. He says that " the excavation has remained filled with water during the whole time since the skull came into my possession." (Page 271.) However, some one must have succeeded in over- coming the difficulty, as Dr W. H. Dall states ' that while in San Francisco in 1866 he compared the material attached to the skull with portions of the gravel from the mine and that they were alike in all essentials. But even if the material from the mine is like that attached to the skull nothing is proved, as the same may well be true of materials from many parts of the Angels district. The peculiar agglomeration of earth, pebbles, and bones is readily explained by referring to conditions existing in the limestone caverns and crevices of the region where the cal- careous accretions bind together bones, gravel (very generally present), cave earth, and whatever happens to be properly associ- ated, in just such manner as that illustrated in the specimen under discussion.
Again, much stress is laid on the fact that the skull obtained by Whitney " had been broken in such a manner as to indicate great violence," as if subject to severe blows while swept by a tor- rent over a bed of bowlders. When it is remembered that the fractures exhibited by the skull are fresh and sharp, this highly imaginative statement (previously quoted in full) loses its force, for the tossing in a torrent over bowlders would not only have bruised and abraded the sharp edges of the bone, but the loose earth, broken bones, wampum, and shells, instead of being jammed into the skull would have been quickly dislodged and widely scat- tered by the rushing waters. The facts are, and may be stated emphatically, that the conditions of fracture and the impacting of bones of more than one individual along with other miscel- laneous articles in the cavities of the skull, are just such as would occur as a result of pitching body after body into an
1 Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1899.
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