1894.] Archeology and Ethnology. 627 
Instead of several ancient midden beds interlaid with stalagmite 
breccia or cave earth indicating the lapse of successive epochs and the 
comings and goings of pre-Columbian peoples, our six-sectioned trench, 
36x24x10 feet (Section 3 to rock bottom) at deepest, showed : 
(1) Red earth left by nitre leachers in 1863-64, with bottle glass, 
nails, domestic fowl bones, etc., 15-17 inches. (White Man). 
(2) Charcoal and ashes in hearth layers, sometimes invaded by dig- 
gings from above, sometimes undisturbed, with arrowheads, chips, un- 
glazed pottery, and bone awls, 7 to 9 inches. (Predecessor of White 
Man). 
(3) Rough, unworn blocks of limestone, larger towards the bottom, 
containing, for some distance down, infiltrations from layer No. 2, rest- 
ing on the rock floor, 8 feet. (No trace of human or animal occu- 
pancy). 
Here then, as at the Nickajack and Lookout Caves in Tennessee 
(explored in December, 1893), we had found but a single stratum of 
human occupancy (no. 2) below the superficial glass, nails and domes- 
tic animal bones of the White Man. 
While in it (stratum 2), instead of a predominance of the relies of 
extinet or probably ancient animals bedded in the fossil preserving 
charcoal, we discovered the presumably modern remains (kindly iden- 
tified by Professor Cope) of the Unio, Paludina, Catfish, Tortoise, 
Frog, Domestie Fowl, Bird (undetermined), Turkey, Marmot, Ungu- 
late (undetermined), Beaver, Lynx, Domestic Sheep, Elk and Deer. 
Only in one instance gnawed by rodents and often interlaid between 
undisturbed hearths, the presence and position of the bones and shells 
demonstrated them to be the remains of a fauna preyed upon by Man, 
while the 5 potsherds (3 showing decorative incisions), the 12 bone awls, 
the triangular chert arrowhead and infrequent hornstone chips, found 
in the midden layer, proved it the work of the same Indian, who, 8 miles 
above had scattered his riverside camp site with bones of the Deer, 
and had dropped pottery, earthen pipes, a polished celt, hornstone 
chips, and hammerstones. At a surface feasting place twenty miles 
below, I found the remains determined by Professor Cope to belong to 
the Unio, Paludina, Trypanastoma, Catfish, Turtle, Soft Shelled Turtle, 
Raecoon, Bear, an 
This proof that no earlier people than the Indian resorted to the 
Forge Cave (and the Lookout and Nickajack Caverns), may indicate 
that no earlier people than the Indian ever inhabited the upper valleys 
of the New River and the Tennessee. But further search is needed to 
