mparatively recent accumulation of roof dust and small fragments of
rock, and is quite dry as far as light penetrates.

The entrance is much more easily reached from the top of the hill than
from the foot of the bluff.

The trend and appearance of the reentrant side walls connecting the
present entrance with the straight face of the cliff indicates that
the earth in the cavern has a depth of 30 feet or more. Should this
prove to be the case, here would be a most excellent place to search
for evidence of occupation which, whether continuous or not, might
bridge the time from the modern Indian to the earliest inhabitant.

Certainly no other cave in Missouri offers such facilities or
inducements for careful and thorough investigation with a view to
determining the existence of an early "cave man" in this country.

* * *

OSAGE COUNTY

RIVER CAVE (40)

This is at the foot of a bluff facing the Gasconade, 21/2 miles below
Gascondy. It has a solid rock bottom, rising steeply for a few feet
within the entrance, and a constantly flowing stream covers half the
space between the walls.

ROCK SHELTER

There is an excellent rock shelter, 50 feet long, over which the cliff
projects for 15 feet, in front and to one side of the entrance of
River Cave. On this is a slight depth of earth in which were found
some broken bones and shells. The site is an excellent one for camping
parties, but has no evidence of other than temporary use.

STEUFFER CAVE

Four miles east of Freeburg, in a ravine, is a cavern popularly known
as Beer Cave, being formerly used as a storage room for beer made in a
brewery built just in front of it. The entrance is 8 feet wide and 12
feet high. The front chamber, having practically the same dimensions,
extends directly back for 50 feet, then makes a turn. The floor is a
mixture of clay and angular gravel, with a continuous downward slope
from front to rear. Water cracks show that it is sometimes flooded.

The place was never fit for living in.

CAIRNS

At the Gasconade River bridge, on the Rich Fountain road, two creeks
on the west side, Brush and Swan, separated only by a narrow ridge
which terminates abruptly at either end, come in a fourth of a mile
apart. Both rise in the same lake, 6 miles from the river, and flow
through parallel valleys, thus draining an abandoned ox-bow curve of
the stream.

On the extreme eastern point of this ridge are two cairns. A f