INDIAN ROCK-SHELTERS 



By Max Schrnhisch 



THE North Ainericau Indian, alter he had long ceased to be a cave- 

 dweller and had indeed acquired considerable skill in building 

 tipis, wigwams and huts, was by no means averse to spending 

 a week or two in the protection of some natural rock-shelter. It is onlj' 

 within very recent years that such aboriginal rock-houses in the East have 

 been systematically investigated, although in the western states they have 

 long attracted the attention of archaeologists. It is needless to say that 

 these Indian rock dwellings — twenty-five of which I have explored since 

 1901 in northern New Jersey and southern New York — can occur only in 

 mountainous districts. Here the redskin found natural clefts in the rocks, 

 shelters under ledges or holes under large boulders anrl piled up masses of 

 rock. The largest rock-shelter that I have discovered, known as Horse- 

 stable Rock, lies two miles east of Tuxedo Park. It is at the base of a 

 cliff, the roof of which projects from fifteen to twenty feet at an average 

 height of eight feet above the floor, and it has a length of sixty feet. The 

 smallest with height six feet, length six feet and projection of roof fi\'e feet, 

 is situated in Passaic County, one mile south of Eranklin Lake. 



There is however many a fine rock-shelter, perfect in configuration 

 and affording protection from boreal blasts, which has never been inhabited 

 by the Indian, if we are to judge by the total absence of all traces of occupa- 

 tion. On the other hand, many apparently inferior shelters have been in 

 great demand. The reasons for this are twofold: In the first place, a 

 shelter to be desirable had to have a water supply in the immediate vicin- 

 ity, such as aft'orded by brook, spring or swamp; and again, it appears 

 that the redman preferred shelters with a more or less southern exposure, 

 where the warmth of the sun's rays could be felt the greater part of the day. 

 Rock-houses with water close by have apparently been avoided, probably for 

 no other reason than that they opened northward, an apt illustration of the 

 phenomenon of hcliotropism observed throughout animate nature. 



Inasmuch as our Indians were gregarious like ourselves, living together 

 in their villages on the plains and in the valleys, it is highly probable that 

 they used these rock-houses only as temporary stopping places to which they 

 could repair for the sake of convenience, to feast, and to rest from the 

 fatigues of the hunt. Besides, many of these rocks are in the wildest and 

 most inaccessible sections of country, far away from the well-beaten trail. 

 This being the case, it is quite certain that only the able-bodied huntsman 

 would camp there, squaws and papoose staying behind in the settlements. 

 The difficulties attending a journey through the trackless wilderness account 

 also for the fact that no pottery was found in the rock-shelters which were 

 hardest to reach, while those of easy access invariably contained pieces of 



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