1875.] 317 [Putnam. 



sons could have lived in comparative comfort. On removing 

 some of the soil from the floor of this shelter many bones of ani- 

 mals, fragments of pottery and flints were found, and also two small 

 mortar holes which had been cut in the ledge forming the floor. On 

 the shelving rocks at the back part of this shelter several small piles 

 of bones were found under such conditions as to give the idea that 

 cooked food had been placed on these shelves for future use, but 

 the party placing it there had suddenly left the spot. There was 

 nothing at this place to indicate greater antiquity than the time 

 when the most recent Indian tribes roamed over the country. 



The immense number of stone implements, such as axes, pestles, 

 and especially arrow and spear points, found on the surface in Gray- 

 son, Barren and Edmonson counties was alluded to, and several in- 

 teresting forms were exhibited. 



He then exhibited a number of skulls and other bones found under 

 various conditions, and described the peculiarities of each group, 

 Comparing them with those of undoubted Mound Builders, and with 

 those of the New England Indians. While the skulls of the New 

 England Indians are long and narrow, those from the mounds, the 

 circular graves, the stone graves and the caves, were of the short, 

 broad and high type ; but in the caves were found two, if not three, 

 classes of burials, and at least two well-marked forms of skulls. 



The skulls found in graves which were, as a rule, protected by 

 slabs of stone, were, so far as his researches went, of a natural form, 

 differing considerably from the high, short and broad crania of the 

 typical Mound Builders, while those from caves which contained a 

 large number of skeletons representing bodies that had been thrown 

 into the caves, or perhaps skeletons which had been placed there 

 after the flesh had decayed, were quite characteristic from the very 

 marked flattening of the frontal bone and the equally marked con- 

 cavity on the anterior part of the parietals. The skulls from the 

 " circular grave "were distinguished from the others by their decided 

 width and shortness, and the more vertical occipital portion. Sev- 

 eral of these latter as well as some from the caves showed undoubted 

 signs of artificial moulding. 



A series of shin bones was also exhibited, to show the various de- 

 grees of flattening which existed, and to prove, as shown by the re- 

 searches of others, that platycnemism, while most marked in ancient 

 and uncivilized races, could not be taken as a special race character 

 of any great importance. 



