282 The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. [May, 
ants of the original inhabitants, but were comparatively recent 
immigrants themselves. ‘The early explorers make no reference 
whatsoever to the shell-mounds on the river, though they could 
hardly have failed to do so if these had continued to be occupied 
as dwelling-places, and the fresh-water shells were still to be 
used to any considerable extent as articles of food. They dis- 
tinctly state that the natives lived by hunting and agriculture, 
describe the details of carrying on these operations, the prepara- 
tion of dried meat, and mention the different articles, animal and 
vegetable, used, their mode of collecting food in granaries, and 
of preparing them; but nothing is said of the shell-fish. The 
inference is that the shell-mounds had already ceased to be occu- 
pied as dwelling-places, and that the natives had outlived the — 
mode of life which gave rise to them, or had been replaced by 
others of different habits. 
This conclusion is consistent with the fact that trees are now 
growing on some of the mounds, which are older than the dis- 
covery of America. 
Unfortunately, we have no satisfactory means of making @ 
comparison between the older and the later inhabitants, derived — 
from parts of the human skeleton. There is an abundance of 
crania and bones taken from the burial-mounds, but it is hardly 
safe to assume that these represent the earliest dwellers on 
the St. John’s. The bones from Osceola Mound and those from 
Rock Island, in Lake Munroe, are the only ones we have met 
with which can be claimed to be unequivocally contemporaneous 
with the earliest shell-heaps. The skull from the first of these 
places has anatomical peculiarities which differ from those of the 
skulls of the burial-mounds, but as there is but one, it may be 
exceptional. 
The relation of the older to the later inhabitants, that is, of 
those dwelling on the St. John’s centuries before and at the timè 
of the first explorations, must remain for the present a matter 
of doubt. We need more complete explorations. of the burial 
mounds than have as yet been made, and more complete anatom- 
ical comparisons of the crania and bones. 
THE CAVE BEETLES OF KENTUCKY. 
BY A. 8. PACKARD, JR. 
(THOSE who have gone the rounds of Mammoth Cave, crossed 
the river Styx, with its muddy banks, passed through Bi? 
Man’s Misery, through the damp passages of the Labyrinth, 
Fe ie nt a ee 
a 
es 
4 
