y extended in a curved line across the point. This
fortification was about 600 feet long, coming to the river bank at
either end. In the part thus protected were many low, small mounds
placed close together but quite irregularly. These were probably house
mounds. No trace of any of this artificial work is now apparent except
that a difference in color may be seen here and there when the soil is
freshly turned, all the earthworks having been plowed and dragged
level as interfering with cultivation. A great amount of broken
pottery, flint implements, and fragments of animal bones has been
uncovered here. In fact, the field is known locally as "the place
where the Indians made their pottery." This site seems to have been
occupied within historic times; after an unusual freshet some years
ago, many "round musket-balls, such as belonged to the old-fashioned
muzzle loaders"--"hundreds," or "two gallons," of them is the usual
version--were picked up where the loose soil had washed off. There is
a local tradition, long antedating the discovery of the bullets, that
a "battle" was fought here between the French and the Indians.

On the hill over the cave are three cairns, but they have been so
searched through that scarcely a stone remains in its proper place.
There is also the site of a flint-working industry, a space 40 or 50
feet across being strewn with spalls, flakes, and chips.

When, in addition to the sustenance provided by deer and other large
game, there is taken into consideration the great numbers of wild
fowls which frequented the rugged hills and numerous streams; the
multitude of small mammals which found security in the myriad cavities
and crevices in the cliffs; the abundant food supply in the river; and
the further fact that so many mortars and pestles meant the
utilization of nuts and the cultivation of corn and no doubt of other
foodstuffs as well; it is apparent that the problem of mere
subsistence was one with which the natives had but little need to
concern themselves. That full recognition was accorded to these
advantages is amply attested by the great quantity of flints found
everywhere in the vicinity, the numerous workshops on the hills and in
the bottoms where the ground is thickly strewn with debris in every
stage from the intact nodule or block to the finished implement, and
the amount of refuse not only in this cavern, but in the Saltpeter
Cave in the same bluff and in the Freeman or Ramsey Cave 3