An Indian Trail 153 



before it came into use as a finished produdl. 

 Much vain speculation has been indulged in ; 

 the fancied method of reducing a thick blade 

 to a thin one has been elaborately described, 

 although never carried out by any human 

 being ; in short, the impossible has been 

 boldly asserted as a faft beyond question. 



The Indian's history can be read but in 

 small part from the handiwork that he has 

 left behind. 



One phase of it, in the valley of the Dela- 

 ware, is more clearly told than all else, — the 

 advance from a primitive to a more cultured 

 status. There were centuries during which 

 jasper was known only as river-pebbles, and 

 its discovery in abundance had an influence 

 upon Indians akin to that upon Europe's 

 stone-age people when they discovered the 

 use of metals. At least here in the valley of 

 the Delaware this is true. 



It is vain to ask for the beginning of man's 

 career in this region ; what we find but hints 

 at it. But he came when there were no 

 trails over the hills, no path but the icy river's 

 edge ; only as the centuries rolled by was the 

 country developed to the extent of knowing 

 every nook and corner of the land, and high- 



