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-30- <br />during any particular horizon. <br />4.5 SITE PATTERNING AND DIFFERENTIAL SITE DENSITIES • <br />Even a cursory examination of site locations reveals several distinct <br />patterns. These patterns and the possible environmental Factors relating <br />to them will be discussed with respect to the environmental zones defined <br />in Section 4.2. <br />4.5.1 The Yampa and Williams Fork Rivers <br />The most distinctive pattern observed was the clustering of sites along <br />the major river systems in areas with extensive bottomlands and a relative <br />absence of sites elsewhere along the rivers. The largest cluster occurs <br />on the terraces around Big Bottom and includes most of the sites along the <br />Yampa north of the confluence of the Williams Fork, namely SMF437, 438 and <br />440 through 449. Of the 12 sites, 6 contained hearths or probable evidence <br />of hearths. At SMF437, two hearth were located on a 30 degree slope on the <br />south side of the terrace on which the site is located and no hearths were <br />observed on the level portion of the terrace. A similar pattern was found <br />at SMF444 where at least 5 hearths were identified. The placement of the • <br />hearths on relatively steep slopes is somewhat unusual if they were used as <br />cooking fires. The presence of large numbers of burned river cobbles in <br />the hearths indicates that the stone boiling technique was used to cook food. <br />Mosquitoes were dente enough in the bottomlands to cause serious discomfort <br />to the crew during the field investigation, which suggests that the hearths <br />may have been used also as smudge fires. Of the 12 sites in the Big Bottom <br />area, SMF444 is the largest and offers the greatest potential for further in- <br />vestigation of the site pattern in question. As mentioned previously, the <br />hearth contents in particular may provide valuable information concerning <br />the kinds of resources being exploited in the bottomlands. <br />A similar but smaller cluster of sites occurs on the terraces bordering <br />Round Bottom, which is located about seven miles downstream from Big Bottom. <br />The sites of this cluster include SMF325, 339, 340 and 465 are located on the <br />left side of the Yampa while sites SMF457, 458, and 459 border the bottom- <br />land area on the Yampa's right bank. While all of the sites may have been <br />oriented primarily towards the exploitation of Round Bottom, occupants of the <br />left bank sites also had access to the resources of Iles Mountain. Site • <br />