82 ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA [eth. ANN. 34 



The site of the settlement at Indian Eiver is characteristic of those 

 along the west shore of the island. Indian River is nothing more than 

 a small brook hardly able to wash its drainage from its own mouth. 

 It does not empty directly into tlie sea, but spreads out at its mouth 

 into a lagoon, shut off from the coast by a narrow strip of sand 

 forming the coast line. Aboriginal objects, mainly fragments of 

 Indian pottery, occur in this neighborhood. They are found in most 

 abundance sticking out of the bank at a point near " Old Fort," and 

 many specimens are picked up on the surface of the ground in the 

 neighl)oring field. 



Following along the river toward its source we find a low, flat 

 plain of rich soil capable of cultivation, in which occur many frag- 

 ments of ancient pottery. Although no great deposits of shells large 

 enough to be designated shell heaps were discovered, the whole jjlain 

 shows evidence of habitation and contains several home sites, but the 

 field has been so long cultivated by white farmers that the midden 

 form and the sites of the houses have been almost wholly obliterated. 



There was an aboriginal settlement at Freshwater Bay, near the 

 road, only a few miles north of the city. The place takes its name 

 from springs of fresh water that bubble up along the coast, forcing 

 itself through the salt water along the shore, and is an ideal one for 

 an aboriginal settlement. 



The author visited with Dr. John Hutson, of Bridgetown, an in- 

 teresting undescribed midden in the marly hills, not far from the 

 cove on the northern end of Barbados. This mound was situated a 

 short distance from the seashore on the side of a depression sloping 

 downward to an inlet that may have served as a landing place. It 

 was a barren place, with very little soil, but many fragments of pots, 

 legs of flat bowls, and two or three pottery heads were found. The 

 soil was scanty, probably worn away, so that these fragments and a 

 few broken shells were all that remained of human occupation. 



Caves 



Several of the West Indies are known to have caves used by pre- 

 historic man. These natural caves were well adapted for shelter or 

 protection from the sun or rain. Thus far no considerable number 

 of artificial caves have been recorded. On the author's visit to Bar- 

 bados he inspected a number of caves that bear every evidence of 

 having been excavated by the hands of man. 



These artificial caves, which remind one of those in the Canary 

 Islands, are described by early writers, but are not commonly known 

 to modern students of Antillean antiquities. 



The few prehistoric objects found in natural caves or cave shelters 

 in Barbados are ample proof of their former occupation by abo- 



