150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 76 



travertine, which was not traced to a termination. Over all lay a 

 deposit 3 or 4 inches thick of dark, nearly black earth, mixed with 

 ashes. This is quite modern. The section appears in figure 36. 



During the Civil War the cave was continuously resorted to by 

 deserters, refugees, moonshiners, fugitives, and '' food for powder, 

 dodging the conscript." All these sought shelter in this chamber 

 and behind it, in order that their fires might not be visible from the 

 river. The piles of ashes in the crevices and corners were thrown 

 there by these hiders-out, to get them out of the way. Similar but 

 smaller piles of ashes are to be seen all along as far as the spring, 200 

 yards from the entrance. 



The presence of pottery of a type common to this region in fields 

 and shell heaps, and of maize, denotes that all the fire beds, etc., are 

 the results of habitation by the modern Indian. Where these ceased 

 nothing else was found. In or below the yellow earth, claj^, or gravel, 

 nothing can be found ; for until these were laid down and the stream 

 of the cave had sought another outlet, there was no dry place in which 

 to live. 



It may be worth recording that a dead mulberry tree stood 

 about 20 feet in front of the entrance to the cave. Under it was a 

 narrow crevice filled with earth, but all around it was bare rock. 

 A root, larger than the tree, grew into the cave and followed along 

 one side wall as if fastened there for a distance of some 60 feet. 

 Here the earth floor of the cave came high enough to cover it. This 

 root was exposed for 160 feet in the trench, or 180 feet from the tree ; 

 at this point it was 3 inches in diameter and turned aside into a 

 crevice. As the root could not have grown in the open air, it fur- 

 nished proof that much deposited material has been carried out of 

 the front portion of the caveni and away from the ledge since this 

 tree was a sprout. 



