538 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS EELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



vault, 4 by 5 feet, were found the remains of eight skeletons, with a few 

 pieces of pottery. In ISTo. 3 of same, a vault made of flat rocks, in the 

 shape of a coffin, containing a few ijieces of cranial bones, fery much 

 decayed. In No. 2 of the Young group nothing was found. In No. 1 

 of same, a large vault, the dimensions of which we did not have time 

 to determine, contained human remains, much decayed, among which 

 were found tliree flint arrow-heads, a small vessel molded of clay and 

 burnt, and a pipe carved out of steatite, having upon its front a figure- 

 head. In No. 1 of the Motley grouji bones were found, and among them 

 a piece of pottery which shows some attempt at ornamentation, and a 

 peculiar rock, oblate-ellipsoidal in form, with depressions (central) on its 

 opposite sides. Around these depressions are 36 marks, arranged in 

 groups of threes. All seem to have been diminished in altitude by con- 

 tinued exposure to the elements. 



Trees were growing upon all the mounds, but some of them have been 

 cleared. On the apex of No. 1 of the Motley group an oak tree had 

 grown 22 inches in diameter, but was blown down, and now lies in the 

 last stages of decay. Large oak and hickory trees have grown upon 

 the other mounds. 



ANCIENT EOCK INSCRIPTIONS IN JOHNSON COUNTY, 



ARKANSAS. 



By Edward Green, of Clarksville, Ark. 



Five miles north of Clarksville, Johnson County, Arkansas, in section 

 7, township 10 north, range 23 west, is situated a cavern, or rock house, 

 as it is commonly called, rather remarkable for its shape and the inscrip- 

 tions on its walls. This cavern is in the southern side of a solid mass 

 of sandstone that crops out on the crest of a hill, which rises some 200 

 feet above a small stream that flows by its southern base. 



The cavern presents the appearance of having been worn out by the 

 action of running water in some remote geological period, and in shape 

 a])proximates a quarter section of a sphere. It is about 50 feet wide, 

 25 feet deep, extending into the rock, and about 10 feet high. 



A partition, or rather two pillars of rock, descending from the dome 

 or roof to the floor, divides the cavern into two chambers, of which the 

 western, or left-hand one as you enter, is three or four times as large as 

 the other. This partition divides the entrance into two semicircular 

 apertures, which, together with the high, bold, and retreating mass of 

 rock above, give it the appearance of an enormous skull buried to the 

 orbits in the earth. This, together with a peculiar resonance produced 

 whenever the floor is forcibly struck, must have caused this place to be 

 held in reverence and awe by the superstitious aborigines. The cavern 

 is somewhat difficult of access, and could have been easily defended in 

 time of war. 



