12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VdL. 95 



Bone fragments were not as plentiful in trench B as in trench A ; 

 also, the pieces found were as a rule smaller and more fragmentary. 

 Material of this type came from sections i, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, and 15. 

 Sections 7 and 12 contained numerous burned and partially charred 

 pieces. An interesting correlation is suggested by the occurrence of 

 the many burned fragments in trench A, section 11, and trench B, 

 section 12. These two sections were located along the same contour 

 line, and their bottoms, the old occupation level, had only a slight slope 

 so that the original surface would have provided a comparatively flat 

 area, a place suitable for camping purposes. The presence of charcoal 

 in the concavity in the old surface in section B-12, the burned bones 

 in both B-12 and A-ii together with the large stones and choppers in 

 the latter — as noted in the discussion of trench A — constitute good 

 evidence that the makers of the Folsom points had actually tarried for 

 a time along that portion of the slope. If the trenches did not cross 

 a portion of the real campsite, they at least bordered upon it. This is 

 further substantiated by the fact that subsequent sections in A were 

 those from which the most specimens came. 



In discussing the big pit in the ravine bank in the preliminary re- 

 port, mention was made of evidence indicating that small ponds or 

 marshy places had been scattered over the old valley bottom.* It was 

 suggested that the deep level seemingly constituted the peripheral 

 vestiges of one such spot, the main portion of which was washed away 

 when the present ravine, possibly an older one also, was formed. In- 

 formation gleaned from the lower sections of trench A corroborates 

 that conclusion as well as the suggestion that the archeological objects 

 obtained there represent midden material that was deposited along the 

 edges of a shallow pond or slough. Some of the specimens no doubt 

 drifted down from the higher levels and others may have been tossed 

 out to sink through the mire to the top of the clay stratum where they 

 are found today. They were not dropped on an occupation level, as 

 were those from sections 12-16, because from section 23 through to 

 the ravine the black stratum gave every indication of an underwater 

 deposit of the kind generally associated with bogs. 



The valley fill, as revealed in cross-section by the trenches, shows 

 that the old level of occupation consisted of a soil layer, several inches 

 in thickness, resting on a tufaceous substratum, a Tertiary deposit 

 dating from the Oligocene. The soil layer probably was produced by 

 the natural decay and break-up of the top of the Oligocene bed and 

 subsequent growth of vegetation over the area. There was no evidence 



Roberts, 1935, pp. 11, 14. 



