Note 580 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
The celebrated skull discovered by Whitney in the auriferous sands of Calaveras (California), which has been said to belong to the pliocene age, has been disputed both as regards its authenticity and the supposed date of its bed; and it is the same with the pestles and mortars discovered in the same neighbourhood by such geologists as Skertchly and C. King (cf. W. Holmes, “Prelim. Revis. Evidence to Aurif. Gravel Man in Calif.,” Am. Anthropologist, N.S., vol. i., Nos. 1 and 2, New York, 1899). The imprints of human feet, or rather of moccasins, discovered at Carson (Nevada), even granted that they are authentic, have in any case been found in beds whose period is by no means tertiary.