4 BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



diameter, 7^ inches; height, 3^ inches), ashes, and other traces of fire 

 were seen. In several parts of the cave were areas which had been 

 burnt, but the fires had died out before extending very far. These fires 

 could not be definitely assigned to periods previous to the presence 

 of the white man in this region, but the presumption is that some 

 of them were accidental during ancient occupancy of the cave. The 

 fire pot, lined with ash cement, shows that precautions were neces- 

 sary to prevent fire among the inflammable materials round about. 

 Burials, of which there were apparently four, required digging down 

 into the rubbish for the deposit of the dead, but these grave openings 

 were begun at different levels as the rubbish accumulated, the lowest 

 being that of a child (see pis. 27, 28), and the highest, that of an 

 adult, whose remains are now in the collection of W. J. Andrus, of 

 Hackensack, New Jersey. In clearing out the debris a round hole 

 was found to have been excavated in the matted grass down to the 

 bottom of the deepest portion of the cave, and which had subse- 

 quently been filled up. The walls of this hole were quite regular and 

 the diameter about 2 feet. Nothing but rubbish was found in the 

 hole, and it is impossible to say what it was used for. Loose and fixed 

 stones and a few small bows and arrows and other offerings were en- 

 countered near a rock mass, according with the custom of locating 

 shrines still observed by the present Pueblos. 



In the immediate neighborhood of the cave still remain some 

 marks of the industries of the inhabitants. In front of the cave is 

 a considerable talus lying against the steep hillside, held in place 

 to a great extent by the vegetation nourished in the rich soil. No 

 pictographs or other artificial scarrings exist on the faces of the tufa 

 cliff, as this is not an enduring material for preserving records of 

 such character. At one side of the entrance is a splendid block of 

 fine-grained gTay rock on whose surface are regular oval shallow 

 pits in which stone implements were sharpened. 



The overhang above the cave is a breccia of basalt and tufa lined 

 with mud nests of swallows, and formerly masses of this cliff have 

 broken away, one large section having fallen into the houses and 

 blocked the mouth of the cave. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



MAMMALS. 



The finds in the rejectage in the cave at the rear of the Tularosa 

 cliff house shed much light on the extent to which animal life entered 

 into the material culture of these ancients. Here were found, in 

 conditions particularly favorable for their preservation, remains of 

 the following mammals, identified by Dr. Marcus W. Lyon, jr.,^ 



1 Mammal Remains from Two Prehistoric Village Sites in New Mexico and Arizona, 

 Proc. U. S. Nat Mus., vol. 31, 1906, pp. 647-649. 



