MacCurdy — Passing of a Connecticut Rock Shelter. 515 



Mr. E. C. Woodcock, of New Jersey, representing the Malt- 

 zyme Company, called at the Museum to notify me. He had 

 met the Woodcocks of Highwood and by them had been told 

 of the Cave and the finds made there. That same afternoon I 

 visited the Cave to find it practically emptied. Near the east 

 end were still to be seen a good many sea shells and fragments 

 of bones. With Mr. Farn ham's permission, Messrs. Bostwick 

 and Darby of the Museum staff were detailed by Prof. Schu- 

 chert to assist me in gathering faunal and other specimens from 

 the kitchen refuse still remaining. In the search, continuing 

 over a period of some three days, several stone implements were 

 found. Cart loads of shells, broken bones, ashes, and black 

 earth had already been removed, most of it going to Mr. Farn- 

 ham's market gardens. 



The condition of the Cave on the occasion of my first visit 

 is shown in Plate IV. A few stone relics were picked up by 

 the Museum staff in the unremoved talus at the right. Evi- 

 dence of progress in the blasting away of the overhanging trap 

 rock is seen in the upper left-hand corner. The man stands on 

 the sand bench, which served as a floor for the Indian habita- 

 tion and which is on the same level as the adjoining cultivated 

 fields. A search of the field immediately in front of the shelter 

 failed to reveal Indian relics. Mr. W. EL Farnham, however, 

 has a collection of more than a hundred specimens, including 

 some fine tomahawks and a gouge, gathered by him in former 

 years from fields adjacent to the Cave ; and the Woodcocks 

 had previously found many artifacts in the field to the north- 

 east of Pine Pock near the head of Beaver Brook. 



According to Professors Dana and Barrell, during an inter- 

 glacial epoch the sea wore away the sandstone, thus undercut- 

 ting the trap cliff and leaving the overhanging shelter. The last 

 glaciation swept away all the talus, and upon its retreat the over- 

 flowing waters deposited the sand anpl gravel plains on which 

 New Haven is largely built ; the one at Pine Rock is some 75 feet 

 above the present level of the sea. After the retreat of the 

 ice (no one knows how long after, the record having been de- 

 stroyed), the Red Men came and made the shelter a home evi- 

 dently for a considerable length of time. The principal deposit 

 they left was exposed to view only after a talus covering of 

 considerable thickness had been removed for road-making 

 purposes. 



Copper coins bearing the following dates were found on the 

 surface at the Cave by Carlo Davio : 1784 (or 1754), Georgius 

 II Rex ; 1787 ; 1802, one cent, U. S. ; and 1812 one cent. 



Another surface find, now in the possession of Mr. A. N. 

 Farnham, is a large stone slab bearing the following incised 

 inscriptions :* 



* The commas do not appear on the original. 



