Putnam.] 322 [January 6, 



caves in this region at a remote time. In some of the caves stalag- 

 mites have formed over these fallen rocks, though in most of the 

 caves where this falling has occurred the passages were dry at the 

 time and have so continued. He was glad to state that, though these 

 priceless relics of a former race had been sadly neglected,* and many 

 of the articles found in the grave had been lost and others had gone 

 to decay, still enough remained at the rooms of the American Anti- 

 quarian Society at Worcester to identify the articles found by him 

 in Salt Cave as the same in material, design and structure with those 

 found with the body in Short Cave, and that he had thus secured un- 

 doubted osteological characters of the race to go with the articles of 

 clothing, etc., of the people who had made use of Salt Cave as a 

 habitation. He thought, from all that had been found, we could* 

 with little doubt, class this people among the more highly civilized 

 and agricultural of the prehistoric races of America ; and it was also 

 very probable that the cave had only been used as a temporary re- 

 treat. A number of fragments of the twine, cloth, etc., found with 

 the body now in the collection of the Antiquarian Society, were ex- 

 hibited side by side with similar ones from Salt Cave and were seen 

 to be of the same character. All the specimens of cloth, etc. ; from 

 Salt Cave were extremely brittle, and had been preserved only by 

 saturating in gelatine and afterwards mounting between glass ; while 

 those from the grave in Short Cave were, from some cause, still in 

 their natural pliable condition. In this connection it is also interest- 

 ing to record the fact that the wooden bowl from the Mammoth Cave, 

 in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, 

 is probably the one which tradition gives as having been found in the 

 passage of the Mammoth Cave, still known, from the circumstance, as 

 the wooden-bowl chamber, and it is probable that the fragment of a 

 wooden vessel found in Salt Cave was part of a similar article. 



In order to bring together all the important facts relating to the 

 prehistoric race whose dead were often buried with so much care in 

 the caves of Kentucky and Tennessee, and who were so far advanced 

 in many of the arts of civilization, Mr. Putnam read the following 

 accounts from several articles written at the time the discoveries 

 were made. To these quotations he has added a few explanatory foot- 

 notes. It is contemplated by Mr. Putnam to publish a detailed ac- 

 count, with proper illustrations, of all the articles which have been 

 found, as well as full descriptions and figures of the crania secured 

 under the several conditions mentioned briefly in the foregoing ab- 

 stract of his verbal remarks. 



