240 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



FINAL EXAMINATIONS." 



Having procured workmen and supplied myself with all necessary 

 tools and appliances, I built a long- trough to cany the water well 

 away from the spring, and at once began the work of bailing out the 

 basin. The box was about 4 feet square, and made of heavy boards 

 held in place by timbers on the inside. About -A feet from the surface 

 of the ground silt was encountered, then sand and fine gravel, with 

 which came up teeth of small mammals and an occasional mammoth 

 tooth, also some Hint implements, the number increasing as descent 

 was made. When comparatively firm gravel was reached, at 5 or 

 5i feet, the teeth and Hints were found in great abundance, and the 

 shovel, which was now brought into use, when inserted beneath the 

 lower ends of the boards at the northern side came out half rilled 

 with the handsome blue and white spear points and knives, and along 

 with these were hones of horses, deer, buffalo, and wolves. A little 

 further excavation beneath the northern margin of the box brought to 

 light the head of a buffalo and antlers and bones of two or more deer. 

 In the deposit were also a number of implements made of deer 

 antlers, which resemble very closely the hammers and pressure-flaking 

 implements used by the tribes of the region in shaping flint. 



The spring box, now being without sufficient support on the inside, 

 collapsed, letting in the beds of soft muck and sand. It thus became 

 necessary to make excavations outside of the spring basin sufficiently 

 extensive to enable the workmen to clear away the wrecked box and 

 provide against further caving in. When the superficial muck, which 

 was about 2 feet in thickness, was removed from a considerable area, 

 it was found to have rested on the surface of a bed of compact and 

 extremely fine sand, which was quite firm save about the spring box, 

 where it had been disturbed by the original cleaning out of the spring 

 and by the slight excavations of Mr. Stewart. In the muck nothing 

 excepting a few fragments of bones of buffalo were encountered, and 

 there were only occasional specimens in the sand beneath. The dis- 

 covery of a large spear point in the sand at a depth of 3 feet from the 

 surface of the ground was a surprise. Plate 2 shows the implement as 

 it appeared at the point of the shovel. This was about 3 or i feet 

 north of the northern side of the box as it originally stood. Since 

 this locality was undoubtedly a resort of the buffalo for a long period, 

 instances must now and then have occurred of the death of wounded 

 animals whose bodies contained the missiles shot into them by hunters, 

 and in this way it is easy to account for the finding of stray spear 



" My thanks are due to Dr. Dawson, owner of the property, for the privilege of 

 making excavations. I must add, also, that most valuable aid was given in the work 

 of excavation by Mr. DeLancey Gill, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, who 

 accompanied me on the trip. 



