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Show CHAPTER V ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN NORTH AMERICA THE question as to how long man has lived upon the North American continent has been much discussed, and is still far from being satisfactorily answered. < ITie attempts to prove by supposed finds of human remains and artifacts in suitable geological deposits that the'tftntinent was inhabited by man in pre- glacial or early glacial times, have thus far failed to produce conviction. \ Prob-ably the most important evidence for such antiquity is ascribed to certain auriferous gravel beds in California. In 1866 in a mining shaft in Calaveras County in that state a skull was reported to have been found embedded in a deposit of gravel which geologists agree is of Tertiary age. Since that time other finds of human implements of various sorts have been reported from the same or similar deposits. If these objects were actually found where they were reported, the existence of Tertiary mm in America may be regarded as established; a ad some well- known investigators have accepted - his view. More recent critical examination of the evidence, 70 |