ancient as anything discovered.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Fragment of glass bottle from Goat Bluff
Cave.]

At 25 feet in an interesting find was made. Eighteen inches below the
surface of the floor, in a mass of mingled charcoal, ashes, mussel
shells, flint chips, and other aboriginal refuse, was a small piece of
glass, apparently part of a bottle, shown in figure 5. Above it and
extending for several feet on every side was an unbroken stratum of
root dust from 2 to 4 inches thick. Above this, in turn were several
thin, undisturbed layers of camp refuse, about 6 inches in all, and
then 6 inches of the loose, incoherent surface earth. This discovery
is susceptible of two interpretations. One is that between the date
when Indians could procure articles from the whites and the date at
which they abandoned this fireplace there was time for the
accumulation of the given thickness of disintegrated material from the
roof, the cave, or at least this part of it, not being used meanwhile
for a habitation; then for the accumulation of several distinct layers
of camp refuse; and finally for the depositing of the cave earth over
it all. This hypothesis is unreasonable. While the rate of formation
of either roof dust or stalagmite is extremely variable, so that it is
not safe to predicate a definite antiquity for objects found beneath
even a considerable thickness of either, at the same time the small
area involved precludes the idea that a number of occupants sufficient
to account for the volume of debris could have lived here unless we
allow a much longer period than would necessarily elapse within the
dates indicated. The other, quite plausible, interpretation is that
the glass was dragged to the spot by a ground hog or other animal
whose runway had become obliterated by settling of the loose material
through which it was made.

The only purpose of elaborating this subject is to guard investigators
against attaching too much importance to an article found under such
or similar conditions, whether it be a "palaeolithic type," or an
"object undoubtedly of European origin."

Thirty-five feet in, under three flat slabs whose upper surface was a
little more than 3 feet below the floor, was an adult skeleton, on the
back, knees flexed to the chest. The body had been laid in a cavity
dug in the clay to a depth of 6 inches. The bones were well preserved
and fresh looking, but light and fragile.

Forty feet in, 31/2 feet down, was