66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



remarkable state of preservation, lia\ inji' been thus preserved l)y the 

 natural salts which abounded within the caves. Fortunately several 

 very clear and graphic accounts of such discoveries were prepared. 

 One most interesting example, then recently made in a cave in Bar- 

 ren County, Kentucky, was described in a letter written August 24, 

 1815 : " In exploring a calcareous chamber in the neighborhood of 

 GlasgoAv, for saltpetre, several human bodies were found enwrapped 

 carefully in skins and cloths. They were inhumed below the floor 

 of the cave; inhumed') not lodged in catacombs. . . . The outer 

 envelope of the body is a deer skin, probably dried in the usual way, 

 and perhaps softened before its application, by rubbing. The next 

 covering is a deer skin, whose hair had been cut away by a sharp 

 instrument. . . . The next wrapper is of cloth, made of twine doubled 

 and twisted. But the thread does not appear to have been formed by 

 the wheel, nor the web by the loom. . . . The innermost tegument is 

 a mantle of cloth like the preceding ; but furnished with large brown 

 feathers, arranged and fastened with great art, so as to be capable 

 of guarding the living wearer from wet and cold. The plumage is 

 distinct and entire, and the whole bears a near similitude to the 

 feathery cloaks now worn by the nations of the n. 'w. coast of 

 America. . . . The body is in a squatting posture. . . . There is a 

 deep and extensive fracture of the skull near the occiput. . . . The 

 skin has sustained little injury. . . . The scalp, with small excep- 

 tions, is covered with sorrel or foxy hair." (Mitchill, (1), pp. 318- 

 321.) 



Four years earlier a similar discovery Avas made about 100 miles 

 to the southward, near the center of the State of Tennessee. The 

 entire account is quoted. 



" In the spring of the year 1811, was found in a copperas cave in 

 AVarren County, in West Tennessee, about 15 miles southwest from 

 Sparta, and 20 from McMinnville, the bodies of two human beings, 

 which had been covered by the dirt or ore from which copperas was 

 made. One of these persons was a male, the other a female. They 

 were interred in baskets, made of cane, curiously wrought, and evi- 

 dencing great mechanic skill. They were both dislocated at the hip 

 joint, and were placed erect in the baskets, with a covering made of 

 cane to fit the baskets in which they were placed. The flesh of tliese 

 persons was entire and undecayed, of a brown dryish colour, pro- 

 duced by time, the flesh ha\ing adhered closely to the bones and 

 sinews. Around the female, next her body, was placed a well dressed 

 deer skin. Next to this was placed a rug, very curiously wrought, 

 of the bark of a tree and feathers. The bark seemed to have been 

 formed of small strands well twisted. Around each of these strands, 

 feathers were rolled, and the whole woven into a cloth of firm texture. 



