FOWKB] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 125 



is drained by a constant stream which after winding from side to 

 side of the little vale flows under the knoll. The hole where it 

 disappears is small, but as no rock floor is visible it may lead into 

 a large cavern, and there is no doubt that all the sink holes in the 

 vicinity as well as the two openings above described eventually have 

 the same outlet. Excavations would be difficult and useless. 



Thomas Cave. — In the face of a steep hillside, near the south (left) 

 bank of the Holston, 3 miles east of Bluff City, is a room with a 

 nearly level floor 10 by 18 feet in the longest measurements. A nar- 

 row passage, high enough for a man to walk in, branches off to the 

 right but soon begins to diminish in size and at 100 feet becomes too 

 small to crawl through. The debris in front of the cave is piled to 

 a height of 16 feet above the present floor, and the highest floods of 

 the river reach to about the same level on the outside. The rapid 

 disappearance of the surface water which finds its way in indicates 

 an underground passage to the river, so that a solid floor would not 

 probably be reached above the ordinary water level. 



Arklow Cave. — This is a mile and a half southeast of Bluff City. 

 It was reported to have a level earth floor, not more than 1 feet 

 below the accumulation outside. While this was formerly the case, 

 cultivation of the hills around now causes a great amount of sur- 

 face water to flow over the little bluff into which the cave opens, 

 and this has carried nearly all of the loose earth away through some 

 underground channel. The descent for upward of 30 feet is steep 

 and rugged ; it was not traced farther. 



MoRRELL Cave. — On the south side of the Holston River, 2| miles 

 east of Bluff City, lies the farm of E. S. Worley. Except for a 

 narrow strip of river bottom land, the surface is broken and rocky, 

 the highest point being some 400 feet above the stream. Beginning 

 near the brow of the river hill the central portion of the farm is in 

 a depression whose very irregular rim or watershed surrounds an area 

 of more than 100 acres. All the water that falls within this space 

 drains into a sink hole the bottom of which is but little above flood 

 stage of the Holston. On the south side of this sink is a vertical 

 bluff 120 feet high, from whose foot emerges a stream that after a 

 winding course of 50 or 60 yards disappears in a small opening on 

 the east side of the sink hole, and finally comes to the surface at the 

 foot of the hill, near the river. Its volume is sufficient, even in time 

 of severest drought, to turn the undershot wheel of a large mill. 

 The course of the stream above the point where it is first visible 

 is through a cave which has been traced to the foot of the Holston 

 Mountains, 3 miles away, and there are many unexplored branches. 

 Chambers are known with a cross measure of 100 feet or more, and 

 some of them have a height nearly as great. Stalactites and stalag- 

 mites, some of them possessing unusual size and beauty, are abundant. 



