214 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



towns. The next site upstream is only a few hundred yards south 

 of the forks on the upper flat (fig. i, site 24). Mr. Hill has re- 

 covered numerous artifacts and fragments of dark grit-tempered pot- 

 tery from this site, but at the time of our visit nothing was found 

 save flint chips. No hearths were observed here. It may be noted that 

 at none of the three sites do lodge circles, house pits, or even fire- 

 place stones occur. 



We visited the third site in the afternoon. It is about 4 miles up- 

 stream and likewise on the south bank of the river. In size it is the 

 largest of the three, and artifacts are scattered over a large irregu- 

 lar blowout of several acres (fig. i, site 25). We recovered a con- 

 siderable number of sherds of the dark grit-tempered ware, several 

 conical " danglers " of trade copper, a few arrowpoints, crude end 

 scrapers, and small pieces of smoky black obsidian. Mr. Hill has also 

 found a few glass beads at this site, but we found none on this trip. 

 Chipped stone is very abundant, with yellow and brown jasper pre- 

 dominating and " sugar quartzite " of " Spanish Diggings " type also 

 abundant. Two hearths were noted here which consisted of a black 

 crust from i to 3 inches thick and from 4 to 6 feet in irregular 

 diameter. The sand had blown from around this packed and char- 

 coal-impregnated soil, leaving it slightly higher than the surrounding 

 level. Several smaller areas of this sort were noted. They occur in the 

 places where artifacts are most numerous, but on their own surface 

 are not marked by especial concentration. Careful slicing of this strata 

 with a trowel yielded a few flint chips but no artifacts. The pre- 

 sumption is that these are the last remnants of hard-packed lodge or 

 fire areas, the remainder of the camp having been drifted out, leav- 

 ing the heavier debris concentrated by the removal of surface sand 

 through wind action. 



Such a camp area would presumably be gradually denuded of grass, 

 so that on its abandonment the sandy soil would readily form a blow- 

 out. The narrow margin by which the grass cover holds down the 

 sand is illustrated by the fact that although cattle are afiforded good 

 pasture here, when sheep were introduced in 1918, they ate the grass 

 down to the roots and the soil blew away over large areas. Such a 

 situation is characteristic of all three sites, and Mr. Hill has noted 

 these harder-packed " hearth " areas at each of them. At the north- 

 west edge of the upstream site is an area where the grass cover still 

 holds, and here, running from the steep bank to the creek as though to 

 encircle a considerable portion of the camp, is a slight irregular rise 

 somewhat suggesting the remnant of an earth wall. We attempted to 

 cross-section this to determine whether it might be artificial. However, 



