468 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—IL [PTH. ANN. 44 
Above the rock bottom, near the front, were three distinct forma- 
tions. First, lying on the bottom, a thinly laminated, still-water 
deposit of mingled sand and clay of varying colors—red, gray, pur- 
ple, green, and others—and spread quite evenly from side to side. 
Beneath the ridge of talus under the drip of the roof—which line 
is assumed as the entrance—it was about 2 feet thick. 
Next above this stratified material was a mass 8 to 11 feet thick, 
of angular rocks ranging in size from small gravel to blocks weigh- 
ing 4 or 5 tons, the interstices so closely filled with tough yellow 
clay that the whole mixture formed a solid mass which effectually 
resisted all attacks with pick and crowbar until loosened with dyna- 
mite. As much of the latter was required as would have been 
sufficient to break up an equal volume of solid stone. Its upper sur- 
face was very irregular. 
The large stones in this deposit had fallen from roof and walls; 
the smaller were partly derived from this source, and partly had 
been carried in by a stream from the rear of the cave, which had 
also brought in the clay. Some of these are shown in Plate 93, 
a and 6. 
Above the last-mentioned deposit, filling the inequalities and level- 
ing itself up to make the entire thickness of about 14 feet behind the 
talus ridge, was a mass of very dark earth, such as had formed the 
upper surface from the outer end of the trench. Some of it was 
loose as garden earth; some of it like tough clay; and all of it waxy 
when wet. Rocks of all sizes were thickly dispersed through this, 
as through the mass below; but it could all be removed with pick 
and shovel and wheelbarrow, no dynamite being needed except to 
break up the large blocks. 
These various features are shown in Plates 93 and 94. 
Scattered through the black earth, from bottom to top, were frag- 
ments of pottery, parts of vessels of varying capacity and thickness; 
chert knives or spearheads, none highly finished; hundreds or 
thousands of mussel shells, more or less decayed. They were dupli- 
eates of similar objects found so abundantly on the numerous camp 
sites and village sites along the Gasconade. The worked objects were 
few, and scattered throughout the mass—nowhere more than a few 
pieces in a cubic foot of earth, sometimes not a scrap being found 
within an area 3 or 4 feet across. This denotes temporary occupation, 
at irregular intervals, over a long period of time. Yet the cave was 
not altogether merely a resort for hunters or war parties; in addition 
to the pottery, which shows at least occasional sojourning, there were 
fragmentary bones, too fragile to secure, of a child 2 or 3 years old; 
of another, somewhat older; and of a small adult, possibly a woman. 
