SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I928 47 



in carboys and gasoline cans. We were plentifully supplied with 

 fish by Abraham and his crew who sank several fish pots of plaited 

 bamboo strips in the shallow water of the small bay on which our 

 home cave opened. The fact that fish nets had been woven and em- 

 ployed by the pre-Columbian Indian occupants of the caves, was 

 evidenced by the recovery of several net weights of notched stone 

 from the middens near the cave entrances. 



As the " stafif of life " of the prehistoric cavemen consisted essen- 

 tially of the meat of the conch and other shell fish, it is of interest 

 to note that we were unable to find a bed of live conchs, although 

 careful search was made at various points. Natives professing to 

 know of such beds were never able to locate one although a small 

 number of recently dead conch shells of the same species (Stroinlms 

 pugilis Linnaeus) as those of the cave deposits were found in one of 

 the shallow coves near the keys. The absence of beds of live conchs 

 is remarkal)le, as the bulk of the midden material covering- the cave 

 floors is made of these shells. 



The floor of the caves is covered with a thick layer of reddish- 

 yellow soil. The soil is exceedingly fine grained and compact, not 

 at all sandy. Upon this stratum rests the layer of aboriginal kitchen 

 refuse. This layer is of irregular depth, greatest near the cave 

 entrance, but sloping down to isolated heaps at a considerable dis- 

 tance away. 



These kitchenmiddens contain conch, clam, and other species of 

 shells, crab claws, mammal, fish, turtle, and l)ird bones cast there by 

 the pre-Columl)ian Indian cave dwellers. The bottom of the deposits 

 of shell is embedded in the yellowish soil, while the upper sections 

 are interspersed with deposits of ash, charcoal, and a small quantity 

 of artifacts, such as shell utensils, shards of broken pottery, and 

 implements of flaked stone. 



Above the Indian layer lies a deposit varying from a few inches 

 to two feet in thickness belonging to recent historic times. This upper 

 culture layer is nondescript in the extreme and includes such objects 

 as fragments of pig, cow, and other animal bones, as well as coconut 

 and calabash shells. Tools of iron including a Spanish ax were re- 

 covered from the vicinity of improvised fireplaces. Some of the more 

 habitable caves are still occupied at times by Dominicans who come to 

 the south shore of the bay to tend their fish pots, and to work in their 

 small potato, coconut, and banana plantations. One large cave at the 

 head or western end of the bay near the mouth of the Barracote River 

 is occupied in season by a numl)er of " mangle rojo " or tanbark 



