102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 76 



only one way to determine whether extended excavations may pos- 

 sibly result in satisfactory returns, and that is to sink shafts or run 

 trenches in the superficial deposits. 



INDIANA 



The cave region of this State extends from Owen and Morgan 

 Counties to the Ohio River. The caverns and sink holes gradually 

 increase in number and size toward the south, until they culminate in 

 Wyandotte Cave, second only to Mammoth Cave of Kentucky in ex- 

 tent, and in the so-called " valleys " of Harrison County which are 

 in reality nothing but sink holes several square miles in extent. Some 

 of the caverns are described in detail by W. S. Blatchley, the State 

 geologist, in the Twenty-first Annual Report of the Survey (1896). 

 Very few of those mentioned by him are at all suitable for permanent 

 occupancy, though several would afford excellent shelter except in the 

 rainy season, at which time most of them have the floors muddy or 

 perhaps covered with water for weeks in succession. ' Such as were 

 visited in these explorations will now be taken up in their order. 



LAWRENCE COUNTY 



Rock Ledge Quarry. — Early in 1903 periodicals mentioned an in- 

 teresting discovery made at this place. According to the report, 

 workmen in excavating a cut for a railway found an old cave en- 

 tirely filled with stalagmite matter. In this, 10 feet below the former 

 top of the cave — the cut did not extend to the bottom of the stalag- 

 mite — were discovered some bones which were pronounced by " several 

 physicians " to be those of a human being. Among them was a " jaw 

 tooth " (molar) and part of a skull. Correspondence failing to elicit 

 any satisfactory information, a visit was made to the site. The cave 

 could not be traced in either direction from the railway cut; but it 

 had plainly served as an outlet for several large sink holes on the hill 

 above it. Nothing could be learned here regarding the matter except 

 that the objects had been found and were then in the museum of the 

 State University at Bloomington. This place was next visited and 

 the specimens inspected. There were many fragments still imbedded 

 in the matrix, which was travertine rather than stalagmite. No 

 exact determination of them had been made, but only casual inspec- 

 tion was needed to see that none of them could be human. The " jaw 

 tooth " was from a peccary, the " human skull " was the carapace of 

 a tortoise. 



Shiloah CA^'E. — It was reported that, although the entrance to 

 this cavern, 7 miles northwest of Bedford, was in a sink hole, the 

 floor was level and accessible. The opening is almost at the bottom 

 of the sink, whose slope is quite steep. After every rain the water 



