470 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II [ETH. ANN. 44 
There are no marks of teeth to indicate that it was gnawed by 
rodents, and it is hard to imagine that any animal could cut it 
so symmetrically. On the other hand, it is equally difficult to 
understand how such, and so many, narrow flakes could be struck 
off from so small a piece of bone, by either pressure or percussion, 
or why bone should be worked thus even if it were feasible to do so. 
The irregular distribution and arrangement of the facets is evidence 
that the object has not been artificially produced. This view is held 
also by Mr. W. H. Holmes. To assert that it is of human origin is 
to claim that man existed in this region at a time many thousands 
of years earlier than is denoted by anything else yet found in 
America. Considerable topographical changes have taken place while 
this specimen has been quietly reposing in its bed of silt. 
Tt is remarkable that while the upper, or dark, stratum contained 
very many rocks, and the stratum next below this was composed 
principally of rocks cemented with tough clay, the bottom layer was 
almost free from them. The few found were small, none of them 
weighing more than 5 or 6 pounds. There was even a scarcity of 
small gravel, except the chert pebbles as noted above. 
The general appearance of the excavation, including the rock 
bottom (in the foreground), the underlying clay and rock, the dark 
upper stratum, and the rock walls, is well shown in Plate 93, b. 
A small trickle of water, first observed at the foot of the east wall 
near the entrance, where it disappeared in a crevice, was traced back 
nearly to the center of the cave where it emerged from a small open- 
ing. It was easily controlled by a little dam of clay in which a pipe 
was set. A few feet beyond this, water suddenly issued from the 
face of the excavation in four places, the combined streams being 
sufficient to fill a 2-inch pipe. In a few minutes it covered the floor 
and began to saturate the earth that had been thrown toward the 
front. 
The base, or bottom, of the excavation was then transferred to a 
plane just above these streams, or about 4 feet above the rock bot- 
tom at that point. The side walls were rapidly converging here, and 
at 29 feet within the entrance they were only 614 feet apart at 9 
feet below the level of the cave floor; 114 feet lower than this, they 
were only 6 feet apart. The laminated material, which had been left 
below when the excavation level was raised, reappeared here; it may 
lave been continuous, with a downward slope. The earth now became 
too soft to shovel out; a bar forced down into it reached rock bottom 
within 2 feet, or 1214 feet below the cave-floor level, showing a rise 
of the rock. When the bar was withdrawn water rose nearly to the 
top of the hole. This put an end to the work. The character of the 
deposits at this stage is presented in Plate 92, 0. 
A plan of the cave is given in Figure 8. 
