BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 107 
The encampment just mentioned may have resembled the one de- 
scribed by Schoolcraft the preceding year, though many miles away 
in the heart of the Ozarks. 
Although it is quite probable that hunting parties of the Osage, 
during their wanderings, reached all parts of the Ozarks, and occu- 
pied camps on banks of many streams in distant regions far away 
from their more permanent villages, nevertheless all sites do not 
present the same characteristic features. Thus in the central and 
eastern sections of the hill country, as in the valleys of the Gasconade 
and its tributary, the Piney, and along the courses of the streams 
farther eastward quantities of fragmentary pottery are to be found 
scattered over the surface of the many village and camp sites, and 
here it may be remarked that seldom are traces of a settlement not 
to be discovered at the junction of two streams, however small or 
large they may be. 
A great many caves, some rather large, occur in the limestone 
formation, often in the cliffs facing or near the streams. As pre- 
viously mentioned, these show evidence of long or frequent occu- 
pancy by the Indians. At the openings are masses of wood ashes 
and charcoal, filling the space between the sides to a depth of several 
feet, and in the caves encountered in the vicinity of the Gasconade 
quantities of broken pottery are found, with bones of animals which 
served as food, various implements, shells, etc., all intermingled with 
the accumulated ashes. <A short distance from the bank of the Piney, 
several miles above its junction with the Gasconade, a cave of more 
than usual interest is met with in the high cliff. This is in Pulaski 
County. Flowing from the cave is a small stream of clear, very cold 
water. It enters the main chamber through an opening not more 
than 4 feet in height and about the same in width, the stream, when 
the cave was visited some years ago, being 3 or 4 inches in depth. 
A few yards up the watercourse the channel widens several feet and 
so continues for a short distance. This widening was caused by 
pieces of chert having been removed from the mass, this evidently 
having been one of the sources whence the Indians secured material 
for the making of their implements. The bed of the stream was 
strewn with flakes and roughly formed rejected pieces of stone. 
Thus, as has been shown, vessels of earthenware were made and 
used by the people who occupied or frequented this part of the 
Ozark country, but conditions appear to have been different in the 
western sections. Bits of pottery do not occur on the surface of the 
camp sites, and it is evident it was neither made nor used by the 
occupants of certain settlements. Fragments of pottery are not en- 
countered on these particular sites, but large stone mortars are often 
found, objects which do not seem to have been very frequently used 
farther east. 
