Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Horsestable Rock

Time travel Tuesday. This is not located in my neck of the woods, but it's not too far from my old stomping ground. I'd love to find this place. From "The Indians of Greater New York and the Lower Hudson, Volumes 3-4", edited by Clark Wissler:

"As already stated Horsestable Rock is by far the largest rock-shelter for a radius of many miles. Its roof inclines backward, showing along its outermost edge an elevation above the floor of from nine to twelve feet. As it does not slant all the way down, but joins the vertical back wall at an average height of four feet above the floor, one can stand upright in nearly all parts of the shelter. The covered space has a frontage of seventy feet and a uniform width of fifteen feet. At the extreme right there is an additional protection in the shape of a protruding rock with adjoining embankment. Near the extreme left water trickles through a crevice on the inner wall, collecting in a natural basin which is always filled, except during periods of great drouth. The floor slopes in a gentle curve from either side towards the centre, the depression not exceeding three feet. Within this hollow space, which, indeed, appeared almost level, there were found deposited two boulders of about equal size and weighing at least two thousand pounds each. They were placed close together so as to form an acute angle and this position suggested at once the site of a fireplace, a supposition borne out afterwards by the remains there discovered. Apart from its great size, Horsestable Rock is remarkable, in that it can draw on a threefold water supply. First, there is the swamp in front; second, the water oozing through fissures on the inner wall of the shelter; and last, a spring at the head of swamp north of the rock and less than a hundred meters distant. While the first-named sources generally dry up during midsummer, the spring is always filled with an abundance of ice-cold water."

Link to the book on Google books is here on page 161.

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