A CITY ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THOUSAND YEARS OLD.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2144, 17 November 1875, Page 2

A CITY ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THOUSAND YEARS OLD.

(PKOM THK SCIENTICIC IMEBICAN.)": In the current number of the Orarland, a Californian geologist reviews.the geological evidence of the antiquity of. a'human ' settlement near the present town of Gherokee in that state, and estimates the age of that most ancient of discovered towns to be not less than 180,000 years. The data for all such calculations are necessarily uncertain, as they are derived from the present motioiis of the continent!,- " and present rates of erosion;,still, from the changes that have taken place since the pioneers of prehistoric California left their traces on its ancient sea-shore, there can be no doubt that thousands of cen« turies must have come and'gone. ' I The traces in question aro; numerous stone mortars, found in undisturbed, white [ and yellow gravel of a subaqueous formation, fluviatile, underlaying the vast sheets of volcanic rock of which Table Mountain is a part. In one instance a I mortar was found standing upright, with the pestle in it, apparently just as it had ** j been left by its owner. In some cases the mortars have been found at the depth of i 40ft. from the surface of the gravel ttn\ [ deriving Table Mountain. The distribuI tion of the mortars is such as' to indicate with great positiveness the former existence of a human settlement on that ancient beach when the water stood near the level at which they occur, a tjme anterior to the volcanic outpouring which Table Mountain records, and anterior to the glacial epoch. - - ; ; ? The recent geological history of that region may be briefly summed as follrfWS :—' .. ■. . . •' .- " ■;" •. ■-:■.■:;.-V'\ -

Previous to the placing of the mortar! in the position in which they have been found, the early arid middle tertiarysea level had receded to. the position of the coal beds underlying Table Mountain, fully 1000 ft below the lever of Cherokee. Subsequently, in the pliocene period; there was a-further subsidence^of about 500 ft.) something lite 600 ft occuring after the mortars had been abandoned. All this, as has been noticed, took "place before the volcanic outflows which corered up all the ancient detritus of the region, including that of the ancient rivers whose gravels have furnished so much of the gold- of - California. : The geological age of the river period was determined by Lesquereux from specimens of vegetation now extinct, collected in the survey of the ancient rivers; specimens indicating a flora of the pliocene age, retaining some characteristic miocene forms. ;, v

After the volcanic period, the land rose again, the time of emergence embracing the glacial period and the new eroding period in the sierra, during which, the slates and the hard metamorpbic green, stones, and the granites were slashed with canons 3,000ft. deep by the action of ice and running water. Taking the rates of continental movement determined bj Lyell, our geologist calculate;? that the time required for the changes thus outlined could not have been less than 1800 centuries. For a period so long preceding the glacial epoch as the time when ancient Cherokee was buried by the waters of the advancing sea, his estimate is certainly not extravagant, though it does transcend so enormously the time men have been accustomed to allow for man's residenco on earth.

A Requisite IV)KMAi.rrf?~su Augusta, says the " Portland (U.s!) Argus,;' si© provision was made this last winter for feeding and lodging tramps. A vagabond went into a police-station and wanted to sleep there. "We only lodge prisoners," said the sergeant behind thVdesk. ,■'•;'•* You only lodge prisoners," repeated the vagabond, meditatively. "That's all," was the response; " you've got to steal something, or assault somebody, or something of that kind." " I've got to assault somebody, or something of that kind," again repeated tho vagabond, thoughtfully. Then he reached across the desk with his long arm and knocked the sergeant off his stool, saying, as the officer got up with his hand to his eye, " Give me as good a bed as you kin, sergeant, 'oaase I don't feel very well to-night."

Ha.ee Times.—A Western (American) paper tells this story of a distressed agriculturist .—"A farmer dropped in on Wednesday last to pay hi3 rent, putting on a long face to correspond with the" times. On entering the house, he told" the landlord that, times being so bad, he could not raise the money at all, and dashed a bundle of greenbacks- on the table. ' There, 1 said he—'-that is all.l can pay.' The money was taken up and counted by the landlord who said, r Why, this is twice as much as you owe!' 'Dang me, give it me again !' cried the farmer. 'I'm blamed if I ain't took it out of the wrong pocket 1" "