The second cave is near the foot of the hill, half a mile up the river from the first. A gentle slope in front leads to the bottom land along the stream. The entrance, toward the northwest, is 60 feet wide and 10 feet high. At 65 feet within is standing water; marks in a channel along the west wall show that at times there is an outflow with a depth of a foot or more. At the front is a great amount of talus partly fallen from the ledge forming the roof, partly washed down from the hillside; the outer slope is 20 feet high, the inner slope has a slight incline to the standing water. The entire deposit within the cave and in front of it is of tough, sticky clay. Many large rocks lie on the surface or slightly imbedded, and large trees grow on the talus. No indications of occupancy could be discovered.
MIX CAVE (21)
On the Mix farm, half a mile below the Gasconade bridge on the Waynesville and Crocker road, on the left (west) side, at the head of a ravine, is a cave with an entrance 75 feet wide and 20 feet high. Cave earth, apparently not more than 3 feet thick at any point, although it gradually rises to a level 6 feet higher than the floor at the mouth, extends back 80 feet; beyond this is water-soaked clay and gravel reaching 60 feet farther to a turn in the cave, making a distance of about 140 feet in daylight. There is a shallow channel 12 feet wide along the east wall from the gravel to the entrance; evidence that at times a volume of water of that width flows out of the cave. The cave earth is damp for several feet from the line of its contact with the clay, a certain indication that its lower portion is saturated.
Much refuse, including several mortars, is distributed over the floor, and it is especially apparent in the bed of the little stream; but fully half the surface is covered with rocks too large to be removed, and these, together with the water, will effectually prevent satisfactory excavation.
One of the mortars has a grinding cavity on one face 12 by 20 inches and 3 inches deep at the middle; on the other face, which has been pecked, apparently with a flint tool, to make it level and even, is also a cavity, but it is small and shallow, showing that this side of the stone was but little used.
DOUBLE CAVE (21)
On Walter Miller's farm, 1½ miles below the Crocker and Waynesville bridge, on the left side of the river, is the "Double Cave," so called for the reason that it has two entrances. The one farthest down the river is more nearly in line with the general trend of the cavern. Its opening is 35 feet wide and 20 feet high. At 40 feet in from the mouth, on the left or up-river side, the two parts of the cavern unite, a triangular partition of the original limestone strata separating them up to the point of junction. Across the apex of the triangle the main cave is 50 feet wide; there is no vertical wall on the right (east) side along this portion, the roof sloping down gradually until it meets the earth floor; it may extend farther, making the cave that much wider at the bedrock bottom. The cave earth at its highest point is fully 10 feet higher than at the entrance; but this may not mean that it is 10 feet deeper, for there are indications that the rock floor also rises from the entrance toward the interior. Digging in the front part of the main cave—that is, in the portion behind the lower entrance—would be impracticable owing to the huge rocks, some of them lying on the floor, others deeply imbedded in the earth; consequently part of them, at least, fell while the cave was inhabited.
From the junction of the two branches the cave earth extends back 60 feet to clay and gravel washed down from the interior; there is ample light at this point, and for some distance beyond. In part, this gravel seems to overlie the loose earth; it is still depositing, and the manner in which the various materials intermingle and overlap at their meeting place indicates that the cave earth to some extent underlies the gravel and clay. This feature is worth investigating, as it might have a bearing upon the relative age of the cave deposits.
The entrance to the branch cave is 20 feet higher in the face of the bluff than that of the main cave, and consequently much above any water flowing from the interior; it is 20 feet wide by 15 feet high. Measured along the east wall, it is 40 feet from this entrance to the apex of the triangle separating the two parts of the cavern. The greatest width of the united caves, 70 feet, is just beyond this point. The earth floor in the branch, a fine-grained yellow earth apparently deposited by quiet or gently flowing water, is 3 feet higher than it is at the highest point farther back in the cave, and is 4 feet or more higher than the bedrock at the front. No direct communication is possible, in front, from one entrance to the other. The only means of transference is by passing through the caverns around the triangular partition, or by going down to the talus from one opening and then up to the other; though only a few feet of descent is necessary. There is an easy passage to and from the Gasconade, which flows at the foot of the bluff; and a good path in either direction to the top of the hill.
Very little refuse occurs, and the site is not worth examining.