66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 76 



of cords of wood, all of which had to be carried in from the hilltop 

 or slopes and passed through the constricted doorway. This labor 

 would be a sufficient guarantee of economical use; we may be sure 

 that no fuel was wasted. If proof were needed of such a self-evident 

 proposition, it would be found in the almost complete absence of 

 charcoal ; here and there, but seldom, a small mass of it showed that 

 a burning chunk, covered up, had smoldered until the inflammable 

 portion was consumed. Bunches or handfuls of coarse grass or 

 small weeds had undergone the same process. Perhaps these had 

 been used as kindling. 



In all the deeper parts the ashes had been dumped promiscuously, 

 from fires made at other points; no camping fires seem to have been 

 made along the middle of the cave until the depressions in the clay 

 had been at least partially filled. The ashes in the upper 4 feet of 

 the ash beds where these were deepest, and in nearly all the shal- 

 lower portions, were stratified and usually level, though at the front 

 and rear the strata followed the natural incline of the slopes. The 

 first impression was that the ashes had been carefully spread out, 

 or dragged, to make their surface even ; but it was discovered, when 

 shoveling some of them for the second time, that ashes may assume 

 this appearance no matter how carelessly thrown. The ashes at the 

 top, to a depth of 3 or 4 inches, were as fine as flour, and when 

 shoveled back hung in clouds for hours at a time, to the great dis- 

 comfort of the excavators, whose eyes, throats, and nasal passages 

 were in a state of constant irritation. The stratified or laminated, 

 hard-packed condition below the loose surface means, perhaps, that 

 they were occasionally sprinkled and trampled by the occupants to 

 prevent this trouble. Possibly they were covered with mats, skins, 

 weeds, or leaves, in the parts where the inmates congregated. The 

 loose, incoherent condition of the lower portions, which " shoveled 

 like snow," may denote that only a few persons dwelt here at first, 

 who found ample room on the higher ground near the doorway. 

 However, all such attempts at explanations are not much better 

 than mere guesswork, and we must be content with accepting the 

 facts as we find them. 



Where the ashes were white and packed hard, whether on the site 

 of a fire or in thin layers where thrown, they contained very little 

 extraneous material; whereas in the darker, more mixed material 

 broken bones, potsherds, shells, and other refuse were abundant, 

 while there was scarcely a cubic foot anywhere in which was not 

 found a piece of flint or bone, sometimes several such objects, which 

 had been intentionally altered from their natural condition. 



Near the center of the cave was a curving pile, 6 b}^ 2 feet, and 

 several inches thick, of mussel shells of every size from less than 

 an inch to above 5 inches in length ; more than half of them were 



