298 In Touch with Nature. 



been found. We must know more of the history 

 of the whole region and of what has transpired 

 since glacial times before speaking positively ; but 

 if the good fortune awaits us to be able to report 

 all the secrets of all the caves, a wonderful chapter 

 will be added to Indian history, and such puzzling 

 discoveries as village-sites buried twelve feet be- 

 neath compact beds of sand, high upon table-lands, 

 will no longer plague the archaeologist. 



Nowhere have the Indians of the Atlantic sea- 

 board been essentially cave-dwellers, as were some 

 of the most ancient people of Southern Europe. 

 This has been explained by the assertion that 

 there are no caves, but, as we have seen, it is 

 untrue. There are certainly sufficient of these 

 natural shelters in the Delaware valley, overhang- 

 ing rocks, caves proper, and wide and winding 

 crevices that needed next to no modification to 

 make them habitable. The difficulty is to find 

 those wherein traces still remain of human occu- 

 pancy. It is probable that where used for tempo- 

 rary shelter the fire would not be in the cave, but 

 at its mouth, and all traces would be obliterated 

 by the winds and rain. This was true, in a 



