FOWKE] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 105 



The work of clearinji: out this branch began at the entrance. The 

 superincumbent earth was removed by a trench whose boundary was 

 the solid rock on each side until the cave widened to more than 8 

 feet between the walls ; then a width of 7 to 9 feet was excavated mid- 

 way between the sides, the entire trench having a length of 92 feet, or 

 reaching nearly to the vertical wall at the rear. For about 60 feet the 

 earth was removed to the rock floor. At this distance the floor 

 dipped. The bottom of the trench continued to follow the same level 

 it had held to this point, in the belief that the dip in the floor was due 

 to a crevice or slight erosion channel and would soon disappear, 

 bringing the rock to its normal position. This was not the case; 

 several holes were dug, the deepest one 3 feet, into the mingled clay 

 and rock, without finding any" evidence of a solid bottom. The con- 

 clusion seemed certain that the passage leading from the entrance of 

 the cave to the large room at its farther end was only a tributary or 

 branch of a cross-cave extending in an east and west direction, as 

 intimated above. Prof. Eigenmann, of the State university, reached 

 the same conclusion through surveys not connected with this 

 work. Under the circumstances further digging seemed useless; 

 for if this should be a cross-cave the bottom would probably, almost 

 certainl}', be on a level with the stream now flowing through the 

 central passage, while if it should prove to be only a cellar-like 

 deepening, it would not be utilized for a habitation. 



At 30 feet from the entrance the accumulated earth had a thickness 

 of 6 feet ; from there it rose gradually to the roof at the end. 



At 37 feet, in a pocket of coarse sand on the rock floor, such as 

 settles in a gentle current, were four fragments of bone. There is 

 not enough of them to identify with certainty, but they seem to 

 belong to a deer, a turkey, and some bird about the size of a quail. 



At 66 feet in, a foot lower than the surface of the bedrock (being 

 5 or 6 feet beyond the above-mentioned dip), were small fragments 

 or particles of charcoal, or what had every appearance of such. 

 They were in earth that showed the lamination or stratification due 

 to successive water deposits, and had been introduced in the same 

 manner. The entire earth deposit below the sand capping showed 

 this lamination, sometimes horizontal, sometimes curved, proving a 

 long period of deposition. Further evidence of age is found in the 

 travertine, 7 inches thick, that occurs on top of the earth at the back 

 of the cave. 



In the absence of all other evidence the specks of charcoal can not 

 be accepted as proof of human life in the vicinity at the time these 

 deposits were forming. 



While the work was in progress three students from the university 

 came through the central cave in a small boat, having entered through 

 a sink hole 3 miles away in an air line. At some point of their course 



