ANTIQUITY OF THE CACHE. 69 



them from the rains. In caching, a great deal 

 of skill is often required, to leave no signs 

 whereby the cunnmg savage might discover 

 tlie place of deposit. To this end, the exca- 

 vated earth is carried to some distance and 

 carefully concealed, or thrown into a stream, 

 if one be at hand. The place selected for a 

 cache is usually some rolling point, sufficient- 

 ly elevated to be secure from inimdations. 

 If it be well set with grass, a solid piece of 

 turf is cut out large enough for the entrance. 

 Tlie turf is afterward laid back, and taking 

 root, in a short time no signs remain of its 

 ever having been molested. However, as 

 every locality does not afford a turfy site, the 

 camp fire is sometimes built upon the place, 

 or the animals are penned over it, which ef- 

 fectually destroys all traces of the cache. 



Tliis mode of conceafing goods seems to 

 have been in use from the time of the earliest 

 French voyagers in America. Father Henne- 

 pin, during his passage down the Mssissippi 

 river, in 1680, describes an operation of this 

 kind in the following terms : " We took up the 

 green Sodd, and laid it by, and digg'd a hole in 

 the Earth where we put our Goods, and cover'd 

 them with pieces of Timber and Earth, and 

 then put in again the gxeen Turf; so that 

 'twas impossible to suspect that any Hole had 

 been digg'd under it, for we flung the Earth 

 into the River." Returning a few weeks 

 after, they found the cache all safe and somid. 



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