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er s ' ' of California 'I<!, main Todav

phants were uncovered in one area fifteen by twenty-five feet, at a depth of
from four to thirty-five feet. One pit contained 268 saber-tooth tiger skulls
and 185 of the great wolf, a heavy, powerful-jawed beast that outnumbered
all of the larger animals of his day.
Also a human skull was found and given the name of "the Angeles man."
This discovery created a sensation as it was believed that here was direct proof
of man's greater antiquity. However, it was the opinion of Dr. Merriam
that the skull "belonged distinctly to the modern age of evolution, measured
in thousands of years but probably not in tens of thousands" as in the case of
the great beasts whose fossils were found nearby.
A theory of the entrapping of the animals, especially as the fossils have
been found in apparent "funnels," is that treacherous wells were caused by
huge gas bubbles. These "wells" filled with oozing asphaltum that held even
the giant elephants even as Ry-paper entangles the diminutive insect.
The cries of the floundering animals brought the voracious carnivorae to
feed. And the attackers in turn frequently were caught in their greed. After
them came the carrion-feeders of the skies, often to be carried down into the
mire of the ages. This is the story revealed by the fossils.
The most spectacular of all the animals were the ma todons, forebearers
of the elephant family. The mastodon was widely traveled, as fossils found
at various places in the United States indicate. The Imperial elephant was
the giant of them all, averaging twelve to fifteen feet high at the shoulder.
The camel, the fossil history reads, originated in America and was numer-
ou in the early Pleistocene period in this part of the world. The horse, too
was a distinct American product and had evolved to the one-toed stage at the
time the La Brea pits were gathering their records to be read thousand of
ears later.
The climate then? As no story of Southern California would be complete
without a climate report, it is determined by cienti t that the rainfall of that
period was much heavier than now, a excavations have been made of portions
of trees that today grow only in the more moistened belts further north.
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