FOWKE] THE STRATMAN CAVE 469 
These bones were in different places, but all were near the present 
surface; and there were no other indications of burials. 
The only specimens found worthy of note were a small hammer 
made of a chert twin-concretion, both ends bearing evidence of long 
service; a sandstone pebble with one unfinished and three completed 
perforations apparently for smoothing leather or rawhide strings 
and a narrow deep groove on one edge for sharpening small bone 
needles or similar objects; and a double-concave discoidal stone of 
syenite with V-shaped margin. These are illustrated in Plate 95. 
Typical flints are represented in Plate 96. Side views of the three 
scrapers are given in Plate 97, a, the larger having a finely chipped 
regular edge, one of the others being a broken implement originally 
approximately hemispherical in shape. 
Fragments of bones were found here and there in it, apparently of 
deer for the most part, though some of the teeth were large enough 
for an elk. There were also bones of smaller mammals. Some of the 
pieces had been gnawed by small rodents. 
In the lower few inches, mostly at the extreme bottom, was a small 
quantity, probably a large cartload, of waterworn chert pebbles. 
Originally these had been inclusions in the limestone; released by 
weathering, they had been smoothed and rounded by rolling along in 
the sandy bed of a running stream, scoured by the fine silt in which 
they came to rest, and finally, by the latter means, so highly polished 
that many of them have a vitreous or glazed surface. 
The most probable explanation of this deposit is that a pile of 
débris, of which no part now remains, formerly extended from wall 
to wall some distance in front of the present entrance and held 
back water coming from the interior, thereby allowing the trans- 
ported sand and clay to settle. A swirling motion in the water, 
due to a projecting ledge or other obstacle, would account for the 
polish on the pebbles. It is certainly not in any manner artificial. 
That the pond was, at least sometimes, deeper than the thickness 
of this sediment is shown by the fact that this is somewhat higher 
on each side where it extends over projections from the lower part 
of the side walls. 
In the finely laminated silt near the center of the cave was found 
the object shown in Plate 97, 6, enlarged two diameters. Whether it 
is of natural or artificial origin was a moot question. It closely 
resembles a core or nucleus of chert from which flakes have been 
struck off; but after a microscopic examination Dr. J. W. Gidley, 
of the United States Geological Survey, pronounces it “ fossil bone.” 
E. V. Shannon, of the United States Geological Survey, says “it 
reacts strongly for phosphoric acid with some carbonate and is 
completely soluble in dilute acid and has the structure of bone.” 
