In Touch with Nature. 15 



re-entered the open country : a conclusion that led 

 to discussion when I saw my campmate's grand dis- 

 covery. He had laid bare a one-time village site, 

 and brought to light many a long-buried secret. 



In suggestive array were the simple weapons 

 with which they hunted and fought ; the devices 

 with which they fished ; the simpler tools with 

 which they tilled the ground; their corn-mills, 

 cooking utensils and dishes ; and, more striking 

 than all else, a cache of more than one hundred 

 beautifully-clipped stone knives that, from the day 

 when the cunning artisan hid them safely until 

 now, had been lying in the ground. They had 

 been closely packed in a small circular hole, so 

 closely that but little sand had sifted between the 

 blades. This was a discovery well worth making, 

 and he is but a sluggish lump of laziness who 

 cannot enthuse under such circumstances. Writes 

 William Strachey, in his " History of Travaile in 

 Virginia," more than two centuries ago : " Their 

 corne and (indeed) their copper, hatchetts, howses 

 (hoes), beades, perle and most things with them of 

 value according to their estymacion, they hide, one 

 from knowledge of another, in the ground within 



