6 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Here, in the " railroad " cave, was found a layer of clam and 

 oyster shells thickly interspersed with animal, bird, and fish bones 

 and with crab claws, forming a deposit with an average thickness of 

 from 3 to 5 feet. As excavation continued, there was found under- 

 neath this layer a stratum of black loamy soil of approximately 8 

 inches thickness. Underneath this deposit of soil was another culture 

 deposit of a depth of 4 to 6 feet. This included mostly conch shells 

 and practically no animal bones. Crude, characteristically pre- 

 Ciguayan implements of shell, bone, and of flaked stone were 

 recovered from this lower culture deposit, while pottery shards, some 

 of which are decorated, and food bowls of pottery were recovered 

 from the upper culture deposit. Another cave containing culture 

 deposits is on the same side of the railroad track on a small key near 

 the abandoned wharf. This cave was named " Simmon's " cave, as 

 it is occupied by a family of negroes of that name. Altogether eight 

 caves were visited and explored on the south shore of Samana Bay. 



Ciguayan Indians. — The culture stratification revealed in the 

 deposits of the " railroad " cave may indicate that the cave in all 

 probability had been abandoned by the conch eaters to be later 

 reoccupied by aborigines having a preference for clams and in gen- 

 eral for a diet including a variety of animal food. The later pre- 

 Columbian cave dwellers possessed a material culture approximating 

 that of the Ciguayan Indians, whose village sites and kitchen 

 middens may be found on the northeast coast of the island, on the 

 Samana Peninsula. These Indians occupied the north shore of 

 Samana Bay and gave battle to Columbus when he entered the bay to 

 observe an eclipse of the moon and to take on fresh water before 

 returning to Spain to report his discovery of the New World. 



The environs of Samana Bay and Peninsula are of especial inter- 

 est to the student of West Indian archeology because of the presence 

 there of many heretofore unexplored village sites of the somewhat 

 anomalous Ciguayan Indians. Columbus thought these Indians of 

 Samana to be cannibals and Caribs, as they were aggressively hostile 

 and met the landing crew from the longboat of Columbus's flagship 

 equipped with bows and arrows, sword-clubs, lances, and ropes with 

 which to tie up the Spanish they intended to make prisoners. In 

 his assumption that these Indians were Caribs of cannibalistic ten- 

 dencies Columbus was in error, as the Ciguayans were later found to 

 speak an Arawak dialect and to possess several culture traits similar 

 to those aboriginal characteristics peculiar to the Arawak of Haiti 

 and of the Greater Antilles in general. One of the most striking 

 differences in their culture trait complex lay in their mode of hair- 

 dress and in the practice of not cutting their hair, as was the custom 

 among other Arawakan tribes in the native Provinces of Haiti. The 



