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the Indians quarried soapstone, finding several small quarries 
in the District where they had worked. The story could not 
he completed here, hut in a quarry in the old District towards 
Alexandria he found bosses of soapstone worked out on the face 
- \ 
of a deposit. The bosses v/ere the round bottoms of future 
4 
soapstone pots, the next step being to knock these bosses off 
and excavate them with the rude pick chisels of stone left 
about by the workers. Thus lightened, the unfinished pots 
were carried to the camps and finished to the taste of the 
cooks who had use for them. 
In its natural condition or only slightly aware of 
the presence of man, the District must have been an Ideal 
place for savage life. Every family could have a deer a day 
and not decrease the herd, a bear once In a while, wild turkey, 
water birds, fish, roasting ears, and ripe corn would vary the 
fare. Not too thickly planted by nature for the Indian, also, 
but a dare to the early American with his steel axe. its 
massive trees were his harvest. 
The coming of the white man to Jamestown in 1607 was 
a small entering wedge Into a vast territory and perhaps we 
would think it of little effect on the District. On the 
contrary, in 75 years there was not an Indian left in the 
valley of the Potomac, the same story that became old as the 
white man pushed the remainders west. The District was 
settled by hardy pioneers and a new line of history began. 
