FOWKE] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 143 



Fort Deposit Ca\^. — Six miles below Guntersville the highway 

 to Huntsville crosses the Tennessee River at Fort Deposit Ferry and 

 jjasses out through a narrow valley between two bluffs. Less than 

 100 yards above the landing, on the north, or right, bank, is a large 

 cave from which the spot takes its name; there being a tradition 

 that it was used by General Jackson as a storage room for supplies 

 during the Creek Indian war. On either side the bluff is vertical to 

 the water's edge, making the cave now inaccessible except by boat. 

 In front of the entrance the rock is worn in ledges which can be 

 easily ascended. 



The opening or mouth of the cave is oval in form, about 18 feet 

 high and 15 feet wide. The sides are uneven, there being a project- 

 ing shelf on each side near the floor. At 40 feet from the opening 

 these disappear, owing to the narrowing of the cavern. There is a 

 gradual ascent of the floor toward the rear, the rise being about 2 

 feet in the first 60 and more rapid from that point onward. A thin 

 deposit of dried mud on each side, where it escapes the feet of visi- 

 tors, shows that the river enters the cave at times, but not to a depth 

 that carries it back more than 25 feet. The present ferryman says 

 the flood of 1867 is the only one which has reached so far within that 

 period. 



After clearing away the earth, roots, and rocks at the front, a 

 straight vertical face at a distance of 18 'feet from the entrance 

 measured 9^ feet at top and 5 feet at the bottom between the solid 

 rock wall on each side, and was 4 feet 4 inches high. The floor was 

 not of solid rock entirely across, there being a crevice less than 4 

 feet wide which was- not cleaned out, because no one could have 

 lived in it. About the middle of this bank (vertically) streaks of 

 red earth, burned elsewhere, extended 3^ feet out from the right wall ; 

 there was very little ashes and no charcoal mixed with it. Above 

 this red the earth was dark like garden soil and contained a few 

 shells and fragments of pottery, with a little charcoal and ashes; it 

 had all been disturbed and apparently resulted from scraping the 

 debris away from camp fires. Below this, the line of demarcation 

 being very distinct, the earth was yellow and sandy, like river bottom 

 land, and contained no foreign matter except roots of trees growing 

 outside. Figure 23 shows a section on this line ; the crevice is omitted 

 from this and the subsequent illustrations. 



At 20 feet in, a foot below the top of the dark earth, was some 

 charred corn. The yellow earth became irregular, thinner, and 

 higher against the side walls than at the center. (See fig. 24.) 



At 22 feet the yellow earth had nearly run out, there being only a 

 small amount against either wall, while the darker earth reached 

 down into the crevice that opened in the narrow strip of rock floor. 



