152 An Indian Trail 



hue as autumn leaves or a summer sunset. 

 The quick eye of some wandering hunter, it 

 may be, found a chance fragment, and, look- 

 ing closer, saw that the ground on which he 

 stood was filled with it ; or a freshet may 

 have washed the soil from an outcropping of 

 the mineral. Who can tell ? It must suffice 

 to know that the discovery was made in 

 time, and a new industry arose. No other 

 material so admirably met the Indian's need 

 for arrow-points, for the blades of spears, for 

 knives, drills, scrapers, and the whole range 

 of tools and weapons in daily use. 



So it came that mining camps were estab- 

 lished. To this day, in these lonely hills, 

 we can trace out the great pits the Indians 

 dug, find the tools with which they toiled, 

 and even the ashes of their camp-fires, where 

 they slept by night. So deeply did the 

 Indian work the land wheresoever he toiled 

 that even the paths that led from the mines 

 to the distant village have not been wholly 

 blotted out. 



The story of the jasper mines has yet to 

 be told, and it may be long before the full 

 details are learned concerning the various 

 processes through which the mineral passed 



