CHAPTER XXX 

 A Nugget of Gold 



On the bank of the aquatic pool, Edna picked up 

 a flat stone with the print of a shell upon it and 

 brought it to the house. This started a hunt for 

 fossils. It was not easy to find them, but still they 

 existed, mostly in forms like clams, oysters, and 

 snails. 



One lucky day down in the gorge, they discovered 

 what seemed to be an old cave filled up with drifted 

 sand and clay, and in this were numbers of prints of 

 leaves and other parts of plants, w^hich were care- 

 fully removed and put with their collection of fossil 

 shells. 



While looking for fossils, the boys noticed that 

 the rocks were not all the same; some were volcanic, 

 some limestone, some conglomerate, some shaly, etc. 

 So they took specimens of the different rocks and 

 searched eagerly for more. 



About this time, the water pipe became clogged 

 up with sand and leaves and William was cleaning 

 it out, when he stopped suddenly, held something 

 up to the light, and started home on a run. 



203 



