PLIOCENE MA NT.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2081, 3 January 1879, Page 3 (Supplement)

PLIOCENE MA NT.

From the report of a lecture delivered at Cambridge, Mass, by Prof. J. D Whitney, we lcnni tnat his subject was the " California!! Pliocene Man," become famous through Bret Harte's verses, a* well ns by more elaborate discussion. The lecturer began by giving som-i account of the general geology of the Sierra Nevada. Grmite is found in the foot-hills of the western slope, while much of this slope is made up of auriferous slates, succeeded on the crests by grnnito. Such were the principal surface rocks until the- Pliocene epoch, and this tiurflice had been deeply eroded by the rivers of that and previous epoch. During the Pliocene ago C ilifornia and Oregon became the theatre of the most tremendous volcanic activity that has devastod the face of the globe. The valleys of the rivers on the Sierra were filled, and much of the country, particuiaily toward* the north of California, wuh entirely l-uned in lara and ashes. Since then, the rivers seeking new channel*, have made for themselves deep canons, leaving their old beds deeply buried under the lava. These old buried river gravels are very rich in gold and extensive tunneling into the sides of the mountains and under the old lavas ha* been done. Inoneoftheseold river bottom', under the solid basalt of Table Mountain, maiiy works of human hands have been obtained, as well as the celebrated bumnn skull of the Pliocene, now so well known in connection with " Brown of Caluverns " The n%c of these deposits under the lavas is known to be Pliocene on account of the remains of ihe contemporaneously buried flora and fauna, which were almost totally unlike the flora and fauna df California at the present time. That the skull was found in thpse old, intact, cemented gravels, has been abundantly proved by evidence that cannot be gainsaid. At the time it came into the speaker's hands, the skull was still imbedded in a great measure in its original gravelly matrix ; in this con dition it was taken by him to Cambridge, where under his charge, and in the presence of Professor Jrffries Wyman, of Harvard University, and Professor \V. H. Brewer, of Yale College, the imbeding matrix wus chiselled away. In and about the skull were found other human bones, including some that must have belonged to an infant Chemical analysis shows that it is a true fossil, its organic mater being almost entirely lost, and the phosphate of lime replaced by carbonate of lime. 80 far as human and geological testimony enn at present go, there is no question but that the skull was found under Table Mountain, and is of Pliocene age. However thoroughly the vast antiquity of man upon the globe is proved, the acceptance ol this particular discovery as a fixed fact is retarded by the Theologians and Darwinians. The reason of the opposition of the latter is because the skull might belong to an Indian of the preitnt day, 10

far at its form is concerned. Therefore it lendi no support at present to the Evolution theory. The rait antiquity of man does not rest on this alone, but on many similar discoveries, both in America and Europe. The lecture, says the " New York Tribunt," wan well illustrated by maps and sections, nnd was also enlivened by the presence of " Brown" himself.