FROM PHILADELPHIA 141 



of former diggings at this spot and no trace of digging 

 was found. They dug down two feet through garden 

 mould, four feet through the common yellow earth, one 

 foot through fine sand, and the remainder of the depth 

 through coarse sand, and from this bed, never before 

 disturbed, the " nail " was taken. It will be easily un- 

 derstood how this find excited attention and started 

 theories ; but this is neither the first nor the only in- 

 stance in America where on a casual digging artificial 

 products have been found,* in all probability of Euro- 

 pean origin. Hence it may be supposed, with every 

 show of reason, that long before the discovery by 

 Columbus of this part of the earth European ships 

 bound for other regions by wind and weather were 

 turned out of their course and wrecked on the shores 

 of America, and their crews deprived of the means of 

 return either died of starvation or were murdered by 

 the inhabitants. From the wreckage of such ill-fated 

 ships the roving Indians may well have taken things 

 strange to them, as a nail must have been, and since 

 they everywhere had their settlements on streams and 

 creeks it is easily fancied how this nail came where it 

 was. What space of time may have been required to 



* Kalm mentions several, foreign to the Americas, and dis- 

 covered deep in the earth It is told at Bethlehem that in 

 Jersey not many years ago a board was taken out at a depth 

 of 36 ft. Mr. du Sumitiere, at Philadelphia, makes the. state- 

 ment on the authority of responsible people that a spoon was 

 found on the ' Neck ' four feet below the surface, and in 

 Front-street an old sword at a depth of 19 ft. A large and 

 heavy iron hammer of peculiar make was dug up at a depth of 

 many feet, in Maryland, and an iron axe 20 ft. deep some- 

 where in Virginia. Very probably there have been similar 

 finds + not made known generally. 





