134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, te 



Coffee Cave. — This cave, 4 miles west of Florence, is said to be 

 '• like the Colyer cave, but smaller in every way." It was not visited. 



Shoal Creek. — A cave is reported on Shoal Creek " 3 or 4 miles 

 above its mouth." No one could be found who knew its location 

 morQ definitely or was able to give a clear description of it. 



Bluewater Ca^te. — Bluewater Creek comes in several miles above 

 Lock No. 6 of the Mussel Shoals Canal. A cave is reported to be 

 near its mouth, but the only caves anywhere in that vicinity, so far as 

 anyone living or working there knows, are a small hole a mile below 

 on the canal, into which a man can crawl, and one some 3 miles up the 

 creek, reached by climbing down a sink hole in a field. The opening 

 to the latter results from fallen rock. 



COLBERT COUNTY 



Newsom Springs. — Numerous caves, most of them small, are re- 

 ported in the county. The best known is at Newsom Springs, 8 miles 

 south of Barton, on the Southern Railway. It is locally known as the 

 " three-story cave." The lower " story " is a cave from which water 

 always flows. The second " story " is directly above the first. The 

 two have no connection, unless far back in the hill. The floor of the 

 upper cave is mostly rock. It is now fitted up by some people in the 

 neighborhood as a camping place, where they spend a part of each 

 summer. The third "story" is an excavation for a cellar under a 

 house recently erected. 



Murrell's Cave. — Tradition has it that this cave was one of the 

 hiding places of a famous desperado and horse thief whose gang 

 operated over all this country in early days. The only entry is by 

 means of a ladder in a narrow crevice 20 feet deep. The place may 

 have been a refuge, but never a residence. It is one-fourth of a mile 

 from Bear Creek, not far above the mouth. 



Two other holes or crevices within a few hundred* yards, difficult 

 to crawl through, reach small caves. Possibly all these are connected. 



Bat Cave. — One-fourth of a mile from Murrell's Cave is a small 

 cavern, the roof not more than 4 feet above the floor. It has been 

 inhabited from time immemorial by myriads of bats. Several tons 

 of guano have been taken out for fertilizing purposes, but no evi- 

 dence has been discovered that it was ever a habitation for humans. 



Pride's Cams. — In the river bluff a mile from Pride Station is a 

 cave in which a fisherman has made his home for several years. 

 There is a rather thin deposit of earth on the floor which may have 

 recently accumulated. 



Cheatham's Ferry. — Near the landing some boys, while hunting a 

 few years ago, discovered a stone wall across the mouth of a small 

 cave. Tearing it away, they found within some human bones, flints. 



