234 In Touch with Nature. 



them in our walks afield ; perhaps preserve them, 

 if pretty ; or throw them down again, if rudely 

 wrought or broken, and think of them merely 

 long enough to mention the name " arrow-head." 

 But what, really, is it ? Of itself, nothing. Abso- 

 lutely as valueless then, when made, as now. But 

 as the effective point of a shaft, and the two as 

 the projectile of the bow ; and this, with its armed 

 arrow, as the weapon of a man, and what a pict- 

 ure of the past looms up before us ! We do not, 

 and cannot, know more of the man than this 

 arrow-head, this chipped fragment of jasper tells 

 us ; but does it not speak volumes ? 



Out of deference to my matter-of-fact compan- 

 ion, let's to plain prose. These jasper mines, for 

 there are several, are situated about one mile east 

 of the village of Durham, Bucks County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in the synclinal basin of Rattlesnake and 

 Mine Hills, on the lowermost spur of the South 

 Mountain range. These mines, or quarries, as 

 they are usually called, cover an area of about one 

 acre. Nature kindly left the ground in the condi- 

 tion brought about by the Indians' mining opera- 

 tions, and half a century ago extensive deposits 



