View of cave drawings. Full caption reads: "Hieroglyphics discovered by J.G. Bruff on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Oct. 1, 1850: they cover vertical wall (south side of a defile) of the hardest Plutonic rock throughout its extent of 25 or 30 miles: the average height of which may be stated at 20 ft. The symbols are in size from 5 ins. to 2 ft. The above are selections of forms identical with the Egyptian. Their age is Thousands of Years! The rock can only be so cut by the best tempered chissel, with a good hammer. Even overhanging rocks at a height of 25 ft. and more, are marked under!"; Top caption reads: "A creek whose fountain-head is a large spring-hole in a gulch-head meanders through the defile, in a N.E. direction and empties into an extensive shallow Lake - not short of 28 miles - from the Spring. This defile is a volcanic rent, through the mountain plateau: the sides jagged and corresponding. The plateau volcanic & sterile (pedigral of a brown color) I made my sketched in a hurried manner - in the saddle, with comrades on either side with cocked rifles, on account of the hostile Piutahs:" Joseph Goldsborough Bruff is best known as a topographer, journalist, and artist of the gold rush era. Bruff was born in Washington, D.C., on October 2, 1804. He attended West Point from 1820 until his resignation in 1822. From 1827-1836 he worked as a topographical engineer, predominantly at Gosport Naval Yard in Norfolk, Virginia. He returned to Washington, D.C., in 1837 and from 1838-1849 worked for the U.S. Bureau of Topographical Engineers. Bruff then organized the Washington City and California Mining Association, which he accompanied to California. While in California he produced extensive journals and drawings of the mining camp experience. In 1853 Bruff returned to Washington, D.C., where he worked in office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department until his death on April 14, 1889.
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