76 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



are more common where nut-trees are abundant than 

 elsewhere. 



A cylindrical pebble, nearly two feet in length and 

 made perfectly symmetrical by pecking away every in- 

 equality, brought to mind the early cornfields of the 

 neighborhood ; for the cultivation of maize is indissolu- 

 bly connected with the history of the Indian. These 

 pestles were used in crushing the corn in wooden mor- 

 tars, usually made of the wood of our sour gum, which 

 the Delawares called by the short and euphonious name, 

 tachquachcaniminschi. 



The omnipresent axe and arrow-heads were likewise 

 buried in the earth and ashes, and just beyond the 

 hearth-circle was a dozen or more flat pebbles, notched 

 on two sides, which were once the weights of a fish- 

 net. 



Continuing the search, I found a fragment of clay to- 

 bacco-pipe, and finally, deepest down of all, a bear's 

 claw, a perforated fossil shark-tooth, and a carved steatite 

 trinket. Could I but have found a trace of the old 

 hunter's canoe, there would have been no chapter want- 

 ing of his life's history. 



The discovery of such wigwam sites is not an unu- 

 sual occurrence, and but one mystery hangs over them. 

 "Why, when they were abandoned, was not the personal 

 property of the occupants carried away ? The axe, the 

 pestle, the pitted slab, the arrow-heads, the several orna- 

 ments were perfect, yet here they were, lying in the 

 blackened earth, as though intentionally thrown into the 

 fire. Did the Unamis, the Delawares of the Crosswicks 

 valley, burn the house, with all that it contained, when 



