POWKE] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 133 



useless. Most of them have small, inconvenient entrances; others 

 are subject to overflow or have running water in them. None could 

 be heard of in which conditions were better. 



ALABAMA 



LAUDERDALE COUNTY 



Smithsonia. — There is a noted cave at Smithsonia, near Cheat- 

 ham's Ferry, 15 miles west of Florence. It was reported as suitable 

 for a dwelling, but at the entrance the roof is not more than 4 feet 

 high, and a stream a foot deep reaches to the wall on either side. 



Key's Cave. — On the Buck Key farm, 6 miles west of Florence, is 

 a cave which may have afforded shelter to the earliest man in the 

 region. There are two entrances or antechambers, separated by a 

 solid rock partition a few yards thick. One is partially filled with 

 huge solid blocks, some of them several hundred cubic feet in size ; 

 the other has in it and in front of it a mass of earth and loose 

 rock whose crest is fully 20 feet above the highest part of the 

 inside floor a few feet back from the front margin of the roof. 

 From here an additional descent of 10 feet leads to the floor behind 

 the first-mentioned entrance, and there is about the same descent to 

 a nearly level floor in the cave a short distance beyond. The way 

 is j)ai*tially blocked by large rocks which, it is said, have fallen 

 within a few years. For this reason persons in the neighborhood 

 are afraid to venture in. There is a rumor that the corpse of a 

 woman, coated with stalagmite, can be seen in this cave; also several 

 bodies (sex apparently indeterminate) lying like spokes in a wheel, 

 with heads at. the center. No one could be persuaded to go in and 

 point out the place where they lie. 



From its position, high in a bluff but easy to reach, not more 

 than one-fourth of a mile from the Tennessee Eiver and the same 

 distance from a clear creek, with a strip of bottom land between 

 it and the streams, this cave seems worthy of exploration. At least 

 a month of work by several laborers would be required to clean away 

 the fallen material so that excavations would be practicable. 



Colyer's Cave. — This is about 5 miles west of Florence. It faces 

 a ravine that leads into the creek discharging near Key's Cave. 

 Human bones were found in it many years ago. The entrance is a 

 round hole, through which one must creep a few yards, then by means 

 of a pole or ladder descend 6 feet. From here the cave is nearly level, 

 with several branches. In some places the floor is solid rock ; in other 

 parts it is covered with a thin layer of earth. The " human bones " 

 consisted of one skeleton, lying on a rock floor, fully a fourth of a 

 mile from the mouth of the cave. 



