vault, 4 by 5 feet, were found the remains of eight skeletons, with a few pieces of pottery. In No. 3 of same, a vault made of flat rocks, in the shape of a coffin, containing a few pieces of cranial bones, very much decayed. In No. 2 of the Young group nothing was found. In No. 1 of same, a large vault, the dimensions of which we did not have time to determine, contained human remains, much decayed, among which were found three flint arrow heads, a small vessel molded of clay and burnt, and a pipe carved out of steatite, having upon its front a figure-head. In No. 1 of the Motley group bones were found, and among them a piece of pottery which shows some attempt at ornamentation, and a peculiar rock, oblate-ellipsoidal in form, with depressions (central) on its opposite sides. Around these depressions are 36 marks, arranged in groups of threes. All seem to have been diminished in altitude by continued exposure to the elements.
Trees were growing upon all the mounds, but some of them have been cleared. On the apex of No. 1 of the Motley group an oak tree had grown 22 inches in diameter, but was blown down, and now lies in the last stages of decay. Large oak and hickory trees have grown upon the other mounds.
ANCIENT ROCK INSCRIPTIONS IN JOHNSON COUNTY,
ARKANSAS.
By Edward Green, of Clarksville, Ark.
Five miles north of Clarksville, Johnson County, Arkansas, in section 7, township 10 north, range 23 west, is situated a cavern, or rock house, as it is commonly called, rather remarkable for its shape and the inscriptions on its wails. This cavern is in the southern side of a solid mass of sandstone that crops out on the crest of a hill, which rises some 200 feet above a small stream that flows by its southern base.
The cavern presents the appearance of having been worn out by the action of running water in some remote geological period, and in shape approximates a quarter section of a sphere. It is about 50 feet wide, 25 feet deep, extending into the rock, and about 10 feet high.
A partition, or rather two pillars of rock, descending from the dome or roof to the floor, divides the cavern into two chambers, of which the western, or left-hand one as you enter, is three or four times as large as the other. This partition divides the entrance into two semicircular apertures, which, together with the high, bold, and retreating mass of rock above, give it the appearance of an enormous skull buried to the orbits in the earth. This, together with a peculiar resonance produced whenever the floor is forcibly struck, must have caused this place to be held in reverence and awe by the superstitious aborigines. The cavern is somewhat difficult of access, and could have been easily defended in time of war.
