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the recent past. But the mortars from the mines also resemble those made by primitive people in other parts of the world, at various times in the past. In fact, it is likely that any human beings, living anywhere and at any time, would, when faced with the task of making grinding tools, come up with tools very much like the mortars and pestles from the mines. Therefore, the resemblance of the mortars found in the mines to those used by California Indians in recent times is not proof the mortars from the mines are also recent. They could have been made, as the evidence suggests, millions of years ago.

5.5.6 The Carvin Hatchet

Another find at Tuolumne Table Mountain was reported by James Carvin in 1871: “This is to certify that I, the undersigned, did about the year 1858, dig out of some mining claims known as the Stanislaus Company, situated in Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, opposite O’Byrn’s Ferry, on the Stanislaus River, a stone hatchet . . . with a hole through it for a handle, near the middle. Its size was four inches across the edge, and length about six inches. It had evidently been made by human hands. The above relic was found from sixty to seventy-five feet from the surface in gravel, under the basalt, and about 300 feet from the mouth of the tunnel. There were also some mortars found, at about the same time and place” (Whitney 1880, pp. 274–275).

5.5.7 The Stevens Stone Bead

In 1870, Oliver W. Stevens submitted the following notarized affidavit: “This is to certify that I, the undersigned, did about the year 1853, visit the Sonora Tunnel, situated at and in Table Mountain, about one half a mile north and west of Shaw’s Flat, and at that time there was a car-load of auriferous gravel coming out of said Sonora Tunnel. And I, the undersigned, did pick out of said gravel (which came from under the basalt and out of the tunnel about two hundred feet in, at the depth of about one hundred and twenty-five feet) a mastodon tooth in a good state of preservation, which afterwards was partly broken, in the hollow of which was sulphuret of iron [iron sulfide, or pyrite]. And at the same time I found with it some relic that resembled a large stone bead, made perhaps of alabaster, about one and a half inches long, and about one and one fourth inches in diameter, with a hole through it one fourth of an inch in size, which no doubt had been used, some time, to put a string through. I also certify that I gave the specimens to C. D. Voy, about the year 1864, to put in his collection” (Whitney 1880, p. 266). Voy visited the site and confirmed the geological details.

Whitney (1880, p. 266) later wrote: “The bead was carefully examined by the writer. It is correctly described above, except that the material of which it is made is white marble, not alabaster. It had evidently been much handled, and unfortunately cleaned of the incrusting material; but quite distinct traces of a former filling of the hole with sulphuret of iron were still visible. The mastodon tooth bore, also, as stated by Mr. Stevens, evident marks of an incrustation of the same mineral; and it may be added that several of the bones, which are said to have come from under Table Mountain, have been found to have more or less abundant crystallizations of pyrites in the cellular portions. There can be no question of the artificial character of the so-called bead. It is regularly and symmetrically shaped, and looks as if intended for an ornament.”

William J. Sinclair, of the University of California, objected (1908, p. 115): “Little dependence, as an evidence of antiquity, can be placed on the presence of pyrite in the hollow of the marble bead reported by Whitney from the gravels of this mine. The rapidity with which secondary pyrite forms is well known.”

But the real significance of Whitney’s remark about the presence of pyrite in the hollow of the bead is not that it proves, in and of itself, great age. Instead, it confirms that the bead examined by Whitney was the same one described by Stevens. And Stevens testified in his affidavit that he personally