50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 76 



On the east side the talus was removed to the wall, a distance of 

 28 feet from the edfje of the trench, and the wall rock exposed for 

 22 feet, to the rear bank of the excavation. 



All work, so far, had been carried on at a level a few inches 

 below the bottom of the tains, which rested directly upon the floor 

 of clay washed out from the interior of the cave. 



Beginning next at the outer end of the trench, the entire space 

 included in the first excavation was deepened by a little more than 

 6 feet, giving a new floor about 13 feet lower than the highest part of 

 the talus. All the material thus removed showed that it was laid 

 down by flowing water, sometimes so quiet as to deposit clay of im- 

 palpable fineness, sometimes with a velocity sufficient to carry stones 

 weighing 3 or 4 pounds. The material varied — red clay, now jointed, 

 Avas the topmpst layer; below it, in patches and layers, were dark 

 earth, resembling soil ; clay of different shades of yellow, brown, red, 

 and gray, sometimes almost blue; some of it uniform, some of it 

 mingled, one or any or all of the different sorts in small compass; 

 deposits of one sort filling sharply defined channels or potholes cut in 

 some other sort; occasionally there was a slight admixture of sand. 

 All included limestone pebbles, which were plentiful in some de- 

 posits but entirely absent from others, were weathered to a chalky 

 consistency, the larger ones to a depth of perhaps half an inch, the 

 smaller ones throughout. Scarcely any chert was included, although 

 it is abundant on the hill; the few pieces seen were very small. 



It took five Aveeks of steady work, with two men, to clear out the 

 second level. In all this clay there was not the slightest trace of 

 bone or other indication that living beings of any kind had existed 

 either in the cave or in any place from which the clay had come. 



At 24 feet from the eastern side of the trench, projections on the 

 face of the east wall denoted that bed rock was not far away. A hole 

 8 feet across, at the rear of the excavation, reached sand with a 

 slight admixture of clay a few inches under the level at which the 

 work was being conducted; and 4 feet clown, or 17 feet from the 

 top of the talus, the rock was found. It was rough and furrowed, 

 like a solid stratum that has been long exposed to atmospheric 

 v\'eathering. 



Further exploration was useless. The sand results from disin- 

 tegration of the Roubidoux sandstone belonging next above the lime- 

 stone in which the cave was formed. None of this remains on the 

 hill; it has all been carried away by erosion. There is not now 

 any sink hole or crevice aboA^e the level of the caA'^ern through which 

 the sand could have made its way. Such an opening must haA^e 

 existed at one time, on the slope at one side or the other, or farther 

 back Avhere the hill is now cut off. In either case, erosion has carried 



