570 RELICS OF AN INDIAN HUNTING GROUND. 



variety of specimens found is not so easily deterniiued. One thing is 

 certain, that as the result of persistent search, almost a complete 

 " series" of relics has been collected. Though the author found nearly 

 all the objects here illustrated and described, yet any one else, had he 

 as thoroughly and persistently searched the same region, would have 

 been equally successful. This is i)roved by the fact that several others 

 (Casi)er Loucks, George Miller, and John J. Frick) interested in the 

 subject have found specimens in the same territory. The discoveries 

 here made lead us to infer that other places, in the eastern portion of 

 the United States, ncnv thickly settled, would be just as productive 

 of specimens. We do not believe that this region is more favorable 

 to the production of relics than other localities similar in natural 

 features. Attention is called to a few difficulties that beset the care- 

 ful searcher. Fields tliat now yield few relics jnay have them deej)er 

 down. The building of dams lias materially changed our streams. 

 Places that once were high and dry on the bank are now covered by 

 every freshet. As a consequence, the sediment has accumulated, and 

 the relics have been buried beyond the reach of the plow. Occasionally 

 a field is washed bare of all the loose soil. In that event, you can not 

 reasonably conclude that the number and variety of specimens found 

 there indicate a mure dense settlement than elsewhere. Taking these 

 and other circumstances into consideration, in connection with the 

 relics found, the author believes that this region was oftener frequented, 

 and longer occupied, by larger bands of Indians than the historian 

 leads us to infer. This place may have been the site of a well estab- 

 lished settlement; a settlement in which much the same primitive occu- 

 pations were engaged in as characterized well-known and more exten- 

 sive settlements along the Susquehanna. If this region is an average 

 sample of supposed "barren" lands, may we not conclude that America 

 was more thickly settled, or longer inhabited (perhaps both), by the 

 Indian than is generally supposed 1 



