loose rocks, under ledges, and into the red clay. All these were
followed as far as they could be, and found to contain quantities of
refuse. There was also a considerable amount of fine dark earth in the
burrows, showing they have another outlet somewhere. Occasionally a
mass thrown out by a shovel or a trowel contained more refuse than
ashes. There was nearly everything which was found elsewhere in the
cave, and almost every shovelful contained something worth preserving.
Near the rear of the cave erosion of the lower part of the eastern
wall formed a rudely triangular recess or cavity 30 feet long by 7
feet deep at the widest part. The upper margin of this was below the
surface of the ashes, so that its existence was not suspected until
these had been removed from in front of it. The roof was 5 feet above
the rock bottom, the entire space being filled with loose material.
The upper 2 feet of this was clean ashes in which were great
quantities of refuse, so much that it had all the appearance of a
general dumping ground. Below this depth, patches of fine dark earth
were mingled with the ashes and refuse. The latter continually
decreased in quantity, until at a foot above the bottom they ceased
altogether, the lower portion of the deposit consisting of nothing but
earth. The pure ashes were slightly damp; and the moisture increased
with the depth until at a foot above the bottom the earth was
saturated and could no longer be removed with tools.
The refuse in the ashes consisted of animal bones, entire or in
fragments; broken flints and pottery; mussel and snail shells; and
numerous wrought objects. These continued, though in smaller amount,
where the ashes were mingled with earth, though bones and shells were
soft owing to the moisture, and could be removed only in fragments.
Among them were the flint shown at a in plate 28, and the hematite ax,
at a, plate 29. The latter was at the lowest level to which the ashes
extended; perhaps its weight caused it to settle below the place at
which it originally lay.
Near the middle of this chamber, 2 feet from the rear wall, lying at
the bottom of the mixed ashes and earth, were 12 entire and 3 broken
leaf-shaped blades; they were not closely piled, or arranged in any
order, but seem to have been hastily or carelessly laid or thrown on a
small space. Another was found a foot away. They are shown in plate
25.
[Illustration: PLATE 26 FLINTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 27 FLINTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 28 FLINTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 29 AXES AND PESTLES FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
Here and there among the refuse were found the upper jaw, with left
orbit, of a young person; a fragment of an occiput, perhaps belonging
with the above though not lying near it; fragments of the skull of a
young child; half of an ulna of a child probably 12 years old; a small
fragment of the lower jaw of an adult with one molar remaining in it,
which has been burned until black. These fragments were all in such
position and condition as to show they were not carried in by animals;
were not disinterred from graves and placed here; were not in any
way accidentally present; but had been gathered up with the refuse and
thrown in as a part of it. The broken or burned condition of these, as
well as of other human bones found at random among the ashes of the
main cave, are presumptive evidence that dwellers here sometimes
devoured the flesh of human beings; and the fact that a majority of
such bones are those of children indicates that it was not eaten
through a belief that the valor and skill of an enemy could be thus
absorbed by the victor, but that it was used as food, like the flesh
of any other animal. Such conclusion may not be justified; but the
facts are not readily accounted for otherwise, except on the equally
repulsive hypothesis that the inmates of the cave were brutally
indifferent to the bodies or skeletal remains of their fellows.
Omitting this question from consideration, however, there is still
ample evidence that the inhabitants of Miller's Cave were in a low
state of savagery, or, if the phrase be preferred, in a very primitive
stage of culture. There was a remarkable paucity of articles used as
ornaments or for personal decoration, and the few that were found were
simple and crude, being only rubbed stones or rough pieces of bones
which were possibly intended for beads or pendants. The pottery, while
strong and serviceable, was plain in form and devoid of any
ornamentation or design except that a few pieces showed impressions
such as would be made by scratching or pressing with the end of a
small stick or bone. Nearly all of it was cord-marked, though some was
smooth, one red piece appearing almost glazed. It varied much in
thickness, hardness, and color. Most of it was dark gray, some red,
occasionally a piece yellowish or nearly white; due to the different
clays of which it was made. So far as observed it was tempered with
shell. The shards were small, as if when a pot was broken the
fragments were still further demolished. The curvature showed there
was a wide range in size, from about a pint to 2 gallons or more.
Their mortars were natural blocks or slabs of sandstone, such as may
be picked up by thousands in the immediate neighborhood, and showed no
alteration of form beyond ordinary wear except that the rough faces of
a few were pecked, apparently with a pointed flint tool, to make them
less irregular. Some were flat and smooth from use with a muller or
grinding stone; most of them were worked or hollowed on only one face;
a few showed depressions on both sides; one had a few hemispherical
indentations near the margin, like those observed in cup-stones.
Only one pestle was dressed into any of the forms which we are
accustomed to associate with the name, and this was a truncated cone
with rounded top, shown at b in plate 29. All the others were
cobblestones from ravines or the river shore. A few had undergone no
change in form; most of them were battered on the perimeter; a few had
pitted sides; some had been used as pestles, mullers, or grinding
stones until the surface was more or less smooth. All such stones are
classed as "pestles," for convenience; they could have also been used
as hammers, bone crushers, and in various other ways.
In all, 73 mortars were found; counting only those stones which bore
marks of use as such. The largest one was at the bottom of the ashes,
near the doorway. There were more than 100 pestles which bore evidence
of much use; and probably as many more on which there was little or no
sign of wear. As the cavern was not of sufficient size to provide
living quarters for many families at any one time--10 or 12 at the
most--the large number of these utensils may imply that the inmates
would not use an object which had previously belonged to some one
else.
Among the flint implements there was a wide range in the character of
stone, the shape, and the degree of finish, although the variation in
size was quite limited. Very few of them may be classed as either
large or small. The longest, shown at a in plate 28, measured 5½
inches; few were more than 4 or less than 2 inches. Tapering stems
predominated. The principal forms are shown in plates 26-28. Only
three arrowheads were found; but this was to be expected, as arrows
would be used only out of doors. One of these of clear, fine-grained
pink and white chert, shown at b in plate 28, so far surpasses in
delicate finish any other specimen secured that it is probably exotic.
The large number of cores, blocks, spalls, and flakes shows that many
implements were made and repaired here. But, while a few specimens
showed that their fabricators were masters of the chipping art, most
of them were roughly finished. Some which are so little altered from
the original form of the rough flake or spall that they would be
classed as "rejects" if found about a flint workshop have a smoothness
or "hand polish" which denotes much service. There is the possibility,
of course, that hunting or traveling parties from some other part of
the country may have availed themselves of the shelter, either when it
was temporarily unoccupied, or as guests of those living in it; and
that these, also, may have left some small articles when they
departed. However this may have been, all the objects from the top to
the bottom of the deposits, in dry ashes or in sticky mud, in crevices
or branch caverns, on the red clay, the barren muck, or the
bedrock--all, if we may except the few flints of superior
workmanship--are identical in general character: That is to say, any
object from any part of the deposited material had its practical
duplicate at various other points on different levels.
Only three grooved axes and three pestles were found. They are shown
in plate 29, along with a cobblestone used as a pestle.
[Illustration: PLATE 30 BONE IMPLEMENTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 31 BONE IMPLEMENTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 32 BONE IMPLEMENTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 33 BONE IMPLEMENTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 34 BONE AND ANTLER IMPLEMENTS FROM MILLER'S
CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 35 ANTLER IMPLEMENTS FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 36 SKIVERS, SHOWING STAGES OF MANUFACTURE,
FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
[Illustration: PLATE 37 SHELL SPOONS, POTTERY DISKS, AND BROKEN
SPOON MADE OF A DEER'S SKULL, FROM MILLER'S CAVE]
The cave was especially rich in objects wrought from bone and antler.
A few of these are shown in plates 30-36 and figure 15.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Perforated bone object from Miller's
Cave.]
Plate 36 illustrates four stages in the manufacture of skivers. It
shows that instead of being always rubbed down from its natural form
the bone was sometimes split by blows of a stone hammer until
complete, subsequent smoothing probably resulting from use, as shown
by the implement at c. When skivers were broken, the ends were dressed
down for other uses; as observed in the upper row of plate 32.
Shell spoons, knives, and scrapers were abundant. Some are shown in
plate 37, along with perforated pottery disks and the bowl of a spoon
made from the frontal bone of a deer.
Figure 16 represents the only adz or gouge form implement found. It is
made of gray chert, the edge highly polished. In figure 17 is shown a
broken clay pipe, identical in form and material with that in figure
14.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Adz or gouge of chert from Miller's
Cave.]
The red clay which had formed the floor of the excavated area from the
mouth of the cavern to well past the central portion suddenly dipped
to the north and to the east shortly before reaching the corner of the
west wall. Attempts to follow it downward were frustrated by black
earth, which when dug with pick or shovel assumed the consistency of
"hog-wallow mud."
For a space of 4 or 5 feet inside the doorway, whose floor was about 3
feet higher than the average surface level in the cave, the ashes were
not more than a foot thick, the clay rising to this extent. It spread
out fan shape, with a continuous slope for several yards in every
direction, thus making an easy grade for entrance and exit.
There are three ways in which this condition could have been brought
about.
First, the aborigines may have constructed a graded way; though it is
not at all likely they would have piled the clay so far to each side.
Secondly, it may have washed through the doorway from the outer cave
when the main outlet of the latter in the face of the bluff toward D
(fig. 13) was obstructed in some way. This is improbable.
Thirdly, it may be due to material deposited in the eddy or swirl
created by the corner of the west wall whenever a large volume of
drainage water flowed from the westward in the main cave and was
sharply deflected toward the south when it struck the east wall. This
is no doubt the correct explanation.
Whether or not these floods had any part in piling up the clay at the
doorway, beyond doubt it was to them that the clay, gravel, and sand
resting upon the floor of the main cave owe their origin. To them is
likewise due the dark earth overlying the clay at the rear and
covering the floor of the recess in the east wall. Clearly, there was
at one time in the cave's history a current at intervals, which
carried mud and small rocks from the interior of the cave, or from the
outside surface through sink holes, and left at least a part of it
where the velocity of the stream was checked. Later, much of this
water found other drainage channels, and the coarser matter could no
longer be carried into the cave; but at times of unusually heavy
precipitation enough of the torrent followed the old course to bring
in the dark earth. The last is due to top soil containing a large
amount of humus from decaying vegetation. Finally, no more water came
this way except as seepage, which is the condition at present.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Clay pipe from Miller's Cave.]
The pool at the rear may be entirely empty in dry seasons; and after
heavy rains may contain a depth of 2 feet. This water now has a greasy
looking scum and a sour, unpleasant odor.
The cave was inhabited before the water had entirely ceased to flow
through it; this is proven by the alternation of refuse and silt in
the recess under the east wall. Kitchen waste would be thrown here,
and when the water rose sediment would cover it. There was then dry
ground near the doorway; and the water in the pool, having an outlet
toward the east, through the crevice, was fit for use, except,
perhaps, when turbid.
On the rear slope, 18 feet from the water, the excavation was carried
to the level of the bottom of the pool. The lower 2 feet was mud, and
at the bottom water oozed in. Scattered through this muddy earth was
much charcoal in small fragments; and for a short distance it also
occurred for a few inches below the surface of the red clay. This
charcoal was carried in by the water at the same time as the earth
with which it was associated, and must be due to fires on the hill
outside. At any rate, it did not come from any fires made within the
cavern. No refuse or worked objects of any kind were found in this
black earth, except in the recess in the east wall, as described, and
in the upper portion immediately under the ashes. Such as existed
outside the recess may have become mixed in the same way; that is, by
being thrown on the top as it existed at the moment and being later
covered by the water; or it may have worked in from the ashes above.
Nor was there much refuse in the ashes on the rear slope, although
these were quite regularly stratified.
To entirely remove the rocks and clay and expose in a satisfactory
manner the bedrock floor would require months of labor, the use of
mechanical appliances, and complete drainage to the rear wall through
the mouth of the cave.
Without attempting to make a detailed list, there may be given a
summary of the objects shipped to the National Museum:
12 skulls, most of them more or less broken.
10 partial skeletons, including those of children.
8 fragments of skulls from different individuals not included in the
above.
74 objects of shell.
711 worked flint objects; knives, scrapers, cores, etc.
10 grooved axes, tomahawks, and flint hammers.
10 mortars.
40 pestles, stone hammers, rubbing stones, etc.
413 wrought objects of bone and stag horn.
2 clay pipes.
1 box of pottery fragments.
A number of small objects, not classified.
There were left in the cavern several hundred broken flints; more than
60 mortars; probably 200 stones used as pestles, hammers, etc., and
several large wagonloads of shell, bone, and broken pottery.
There is no way in which the age of the deposits in either the Miller
or the Sells Cave can be determined. The accumulation of ashes in the
one and of talus at the front of the other would certainly imply the
lapse of several centuries, perhaps a thousand years of continuous
occupation. Intermittent habitation would lengthen this period.
RAMSEY'S CAVE
Ramsey's Cave, better known as Freeman's Cave, is in a bluff on the
right bank of Big Piney River, 3 miles below Miller's Cave. It is
about 150 feet above the level of the stream and the same below the
summit of the hill behind it. Within a hundred yards to east and west
are shallow ravines by which access is fairly easy to a ledge nearly
on the same level as the cave; this is wide enough for one person to
traverse, but in most places too narrow for two abreast. The talus in
front is rough and steep but a crooked path with no difficult grades
can be made to the water.
Chambers on each side near the entrance, which are accessible only by
means of a ladder, provide excellent living quarters and command
approach from any direction, even along the foot of the cliff on
either side.
The entrance, which faces southwest, is a symmetrical arch 75 feet
wide and 20 feet high.
Bedrock shows just in front, covered with loose material washed over
the cliff. The floor ascends and the roof descends toward the rear,
until at 70 feet they approach within 6 feet of each other; beyond
this the cave is choked with fallen rocks and with earth and gravel
probably from a sink hole some distance back on top of the hill.
Refuse shows about the entrance and for 40 feet toward the rear, where
earth from the interior has worked down over it. The surface is strewn
with rocks, large and small, so that excavations are possible only in
small areas. Several holes were dug at intervals between the front and
the rear; a considerable amount of ashes was found over the middle
portion, thrown from still farther back. Very little was found in
them. The rock bottom slopes upward slightly and was covered in some
places with clay and gravel, on which lay the ashes and other refuse;
these were nowhere more than 3 feet deep, and usually much thinner.
The place was so difficult to work in and the returns were so scanty
that systematic investigation did not seem warranted, and the work was
not extended. The only objects secured were a bone perforator, part of
another one, a snail shell, apparently a bead, a very small piece of
sandstone used as a grinder or polisher for bones, a fragment of
worked mussel shell, and nine rough flints. There were also a few
small fragments of pottery.
A man living near the cave reported that a few years ago he was
digging in a narrow space between the east wall and a large fallen
rock. He came upon the feet of two skeletons and took out the lower
leg bones. Being assured by a friend that these were not bones of
Indians because they were not "red," and so must be remains of white
people, he replaced them and threw the earth back on them. He was
certain the spot had never since been disturbed; but in this he was
mistaken, for investigation revealed a pile of human bones lying in
confusion, in which the frames of two individuals, as he had said,
were mingled; but no trace of the skull or jaw of either. Evidently
some one had come afterwards in search of the skulls. The femur of the
larger individual was just 19 inches long; the other frame was much
smaller; but all other bones were in such fragmentary condition they
could not be measured.
There is a rock shelter a short distance down the river from the
Ramsey Cave and in the same ledge. It is 45 feet long, 15 feet deep,
and 8 feet high in front, the roof coming down to the floor at the
rear. There is nothing to show that it was ever used, even as a
camping place.
* * * * *
A fourth of a mile above this cave is another from which flows a
never-failing spring. There is a pile of ashes near the front,
containing some refuse, but these mark only the site of an occasional
camp, as the place could not be occupied in wet weather.
GRAHAM CAVE
On Graham's land, high up in a bluff facing Big Piney, opposite the
mouth of Spring Creek, is a small cave difficult to reach and not
suitable for occupancy.
PILLMAN'S OR SPRING CREEK, CAVE (25)
At the mouth of Spring Creek, on land of John Pillman, near the top of
the bluff, is a cave with an entrance 30 feet wide and 30 feet high. A
steep rock ledge at the front offers an impassable obstacle to any
stock except goats. The front chamber is well lighted for a distance
of 80 feet, where it makes a turn. Bedrock is exposed near the
entrance and rises toward the rear, showing here and there through the
covering of earth, which is not more than 2 feet deep anywhere. Water
cracks appear even in the highest spots, proving the floor to be
saturated at times. There is considerable refuse inside the cave, but
none in front, and it is reported that human skeletons have been found
in it. If so they must have been on a ledge or in a crevice. Plate 2,
a, shows the hill, from the west; plate 2, b, the entrance to the
cave.
Two large cairns stood on top of the bluff above the cave. So far as
can be determined in their dilapidated condition, there seems to have
been a row of stones inclosing a definite area, but it is impossible
to ascertain with certainty whether this was the case.
On a lower ridge, to the north, are three similar but smaller cairns.
These are constructed entirely of sandstone slabs, and there was
plainly some sort of system used in placing them; but, as in the case
of the first, it can not now be determined whether there was a
continuous wall, and, if so, whether it was more than one stone high.
* * * * *
A village site is reported in the river bottom on David Thomas's farm
on the Big Piney, near Moab.
There were cairns, now totally destroyed, at two places on the ridge
over which passes the road from Devil's Elbow to Spring Creek.
WOODLAND HOLLOW CAVE
A minor ravine, known as Woodland Hollow, opens into a small unnamed
creek a mile above its junction with Big Piney River at the Devil's
Elbow. In the west slope of this ravine is a large cave, named from
its location. Through the middle part the floor is muddy; along the
wall on the left, dry cave earth, with a width of 20 to 30 feet,
extends for 70 feet from the entrance, its surface 4 feet above the
level of the wet floor. A smaller amount of dry earth lies along the
opposite wall. The sides of the cavern recede at the bottom, the dry
earth passing under them. No estimate can be made as to the total
depth of the deposits. At the mouth of a ground-hog burrow were two
bone perforators, potsherds, fragments of bones, and pieces of worked
flint, including two knives, which had been thrown out by the animal.
Two mortar stones were found on the margin of the dry earth.
The cave belongs to Philip Becker, of St. Louis, who peremptorily
refused to allow any examination whatever to be made; the only case in
the whole region where cheerful permission was not given for any
amount of excavation desired.
Three cairns, all demolished, stood on the Stuart property, half a
mile from Woodland Cave.
* * * * *
There is a cairn on top of Lost Hill, half a mile south of Blue, or
Shanghai, Spring on Big Piney.
WALLED GRAVES AT DEVIL'S ELBOW (26)
Three miles above the point at which it passes out of the hills into
the bottom lands on its way to the Gasconade, the Big Piney River
doubles on itself with an abrupt curve, which raftsmen have named "The
Devil's Elbow." For more than a mile above and below this bend the
stream flows in opposite directions in nearly parallel east and west
channels around the foot of a spur from the high land to the west.
Into the Elbow, on its outer curve, three ravines from the east and
southeast open within a fourth of a mile. They form the boundaries of
two very narrow ridges or "hog-backs," which terminate in precipitous
slopes near the river. For some distance back from the points the
limestone bedrock crops out, a slight accumulation of earth in the
crevices supporting a scanty covering of weeds but being insufficient
to permit the growth of trees or bushes; hence the term "balds" by
which they are locally known. The ridges have a gradual and nearly
uniform slope toward the summit of the hill, which lies half a mile
to the eastward. The sandstone capping the hill appears within a few
hundred feet and is covered with an abundant growth. On the upland are
many large trees.
The ridge farthest south, on the farm of Joseph Ross, has five stone
graves along the crest, numbered here in their order from the bluff.
Number (1) is a few rods below the sandstone outcrop, and is
constructed partly of weathered limestone blocks such as are now lying
around it and partly of sandstone slabs carried from farther up the
hill. All the other cairns, although (2) and (3) stand on the
limestone bedrock, are built entirely of sandstone fragments ranging
from the size of a brick or smaller to pieces weighing over 200
pounds.