fowke] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 119 



BARREN COUNTY 



Payne Cave. — This, also known as Saltpeter Cave, is near Temple 

 Hill, 9 miles southeast of Glasgow. The bluff in which it is situ- 

 ated is a conglomerate limestone, rising from the waters of Skagg's 

 Creek. The cave has three different entrances, 100 feet or more 

 apart, and each entrance is broken into three or four by columns 

 or masses of stone that have resisted erosion. None of the entrances 

 is large, or opens into spacious chambers within daylight. Flood 

 marks are visible in all, and it is said that after prolonged or heavy 

 spring rains the water covers the floors. 



Ben Smith's Cave. — This was discovered while digging out a fox 

 den. It is a tunnel-like cavity, not more than 6 feet high or wide, 

 and not suitable for habitation. It lies a mile and a half south of 

 Temple Hill. 



Ford's Cave. — This is between Freedom and Mount Hermon, about 

 14 miles southeast of Glasgow. Originally the entrance was about 8 

 feet high and 20 feet wide, and opened into a well-lighted chamber 

 probably -10 feet wide and 60 feet long. The floor was of earth and 

 level, with ample space between it and the roof, as shown by marks 

 on the walls, for people to move about readily in any part of the 

 room. The entrance is now artificially closed by earth and stone, 

 except for a space 4 feet square in which a door is hung. Old men 

 in the neighborhood claim they can remember when the floor was 20 

 feet lower than at present; a manifest impossibility, for that meas- 

 ure would bring it several feet lower than the bed of Mill Creek just 

 in front of the cave. They also claim that blocks of conglomerate 

 and travertine 5 to 10 feet in each dimension have formed from 

 " drip '' within their recollection ; which, if true, would prove these 

 persons to be almost contemporaneous with the cave men. The more 

 probable statement is also made by them that in early days saltpeter 

 workers dug up and leached all the earth in the cave, filling the en- 

 trance and the narrow space before it with the leached earth from the 

 front part of the cave and throwing that from farther back into the 

 cavities and pits left by the prior workings. Inside the cave, near 

 the entrance, is a never-failing spring whose waters flow through a 

 short, narrow crevice at one side. While easily accessible, the water 

 does not reach any of the earth floor. 



This would have been an excellent site for aboriginal residence, 

 but there is now no undisturbed earth within daylight nor for some 

 distance beyond, and no one can remember that anything of an arti- 

 ficial nature was ever exhumed. 



The Esmith Caves. — Two caves situated on Peters Creek near 

 Dry Fork post office, 14 miles southeast of Glasgow, were reported to 

 be admirably suited for shelter purposes. The smaller is not more 



