h was of solid lava. At another place a stone bead was found
three hundred feet from the mouth of the tunnel, under a thick layer
of lava. Many other instances might be given of such discoveries, not
always under lava coverings, but always in such instances that we are
compelled to assign to them an immense antiquity. As, for instance, at
San Andreas, according to a sworn statement in Mr. Voy's possession,
large stone mortars were taken from a layer of cemented gravel, overlain
by one hundred and twenty-five feet of volcanic and gravel materials.
Many similar instances are on record, but enough have been mentioned to
serve the purpose of the chapter.<11>

As we have briefly gone over the ground on which the antiquity of man
in America is, by some, referred to the Pliocene Age, it is but fair to
notice some of the objections that have been raised. It is not necessary
to point out that the only questions worthy to be considered are of a
scientific nature.

We must deny either the age of the gravels themselves or that the
objects of human handiwork were found as claimed, or else that they are
of the same age as the gravels. Prof. LeConte thinks, from the nature
of the gravels and the peculiar circumstances which surround them, that
they are not older than the close of the Pliocene Age. He thinks they,
in fact, belong to the transitory period between that age and the
Quaternary.<12> But as we are considering the question of Pliocene man,
it makes but little difference if the gravels do belong to the very
close of that period. They may still be called Pliocene.

One great trouble with those remains is that they were not discovered by
professed geologists. We have to depend upon the statements of miners.
But if their statements can be believed (and why should they not?),
there is no doubt about their genuineness. The testimony, as Mr. Whitney
says, "all points in one direction, and there has never been any attempt
made to pass off on any member of the survey any thing out of keeping,
or--so to speak--out of harmony with what has been already found, or
might be expected to be found. It has always been the same kind of
implements which have been exhibited to us, namely, the coarsest and
the least finished, which one would suppose could be made, and still be
implements at all."<13> This result would hardly be possible, where so
many parties are concerned in furnishing the evidence, if the objects
were not genuine.<14>

In op