urposes,
increased to a very limited extent by kitchen waste, and by discarded
or mislaid wrought objects. It represented the combustion of many
hundreds, perhaps of thousands, of cords of wood, all of which had to
be carried in from the hilltop or slopes and passed through the
constricted doorway. This labor would be a sufficient guarantee of
economical use; we may be sure that no fuel was wasted. If proof were
needed of such a self-evident proposition, it would be found in the
almost complete absence of charcoal; here and there, but seldom, a
small mass of it showed that a burning chunk, covered up, had
smoldered until the inflammable portion was consumed. Bunches or
handfuls of coarse grass or small weeds had undergone the same
process. Perhaps these had been used as kindling.

In all the deeper parts the ashes had been dumped promiscuously, from
fires made at other points; no camping fires seem to have been made
along the middle of the cave until the depressions in the clay had
been at least partially filled. The ashes in the upper 4 feet of the
ash beds where these were deepest, and in nearly all the shallower
portions, were stratified and usually level, though at the front and
rear the strata followed the natural incline of the slopes. The first
impression was that the ashes had been carefully spread out, or
dragged, to make their surface even; but it was discovered, when
shoveling some of them for the second time, that ashes may assume this
appearance no matter how carelessly thrown. The ashes at the top, to a
depth of 3 or 4 inches, were as fine as flour, and when shoveled back
hung in clouds for hours at a time, to the great discomfort of the
excavators, whose eyes, throats, and nasal passages were in a state of
constant irritation. The stratified or laminated, hard-packed
condition below the loose surface means, perhaps, that they were
occasionally sprinkled and trampled by the occupants to prevent this
trouble. Possibly they were covered with mats, skins, weeds, or
leaves, in the parts where the inmates congregated. The loose,
incoherent condition of the lower portions, which "shoveled like
snow," may denote that only a few persons dwelt here at first, who
found ample room on the higher ground near the doorway. However, all
such attempts at explanations are not much better than mere guesswork,
and we must be content with accepting the facts as we find them.

Where the ashes were white and packed hard, wheth