A Day's Digging 171 



dried mud dishes made by women hereabouts 

 during, who can say how many centuries ? 

 How completely history and pre-history 

 here overlapped ! We know pretty much 

 everything about Dutchmen, but how much 

 do we really know of the native American ? 

 After nearly thirty years' digging, he has been 

 traced from the days of the great glaciers to 

 the beginnings of American history ; but we 

 cannot say how long a time that comprises. 

 The winter of 1 892-1 893 was, so far as 

 appearances went, a return to glacial times. 

 Ice was piled up fifty feet in height, and 

 the water turned from the old channel of the 

 river. The cutting of another one opened 

 up new territory for the relic hunter when 

 the ice was gone and the stream had returned 

 to its old bed. Many an Indian wigwam 

 site that had been covered deep with soil 

 was again warmed by the springtide sun, and 

 those were rare days when, from the ashes of 

 forgotten camps, I raked the broken weapons 

 and rude dishes that the red men had dis- 

 carded. It was reading history at first hands, 

 without other commentary than your own. 

 The ice-scored gravel-beds told even an older 

 story ; but no one day's digging was so full 



