132 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
esting in such weather as yesterday, where the 
most terrene colors are seen. The wet earth 
and sand, and especially subsoil, are very invig¬ 
orating sights. 
It is remarkable that the spots where I find 
most arrow-heads, etc., being light, dry soil (as 
the Great Fields, Clamshell Hill, etc.), are 
among the first to be bare of snow and free 
from frost. It is very curiously and particu¬ 
larly true, for the only parts of the northeast 
section of the Great Fields which are so dry 
that I do not slump there, are those, small in 
area, where perfectly bare patches of sand oc¬ 
cur, and there, singularly enough, the arrow¬ 
heads are particularly common. Indeed, in 
some cases, I find them only on such bare 
spots, a rod or two in extent, where a single 
wigwam might have stood, and not half a dozen 
rods off in any direction. Yet the difference of 
level may not be more than a foot, if there is 
any. It is as if the Indians had selected pre¬ 
cisely the driest spots on the whole plain with 
a view to their advantage at this season. If vou 
were going to pitch a tent to-night on the Great 
Fields, you would inevitably pitch on one of 
those spots, or else lie down in water or mud, or 
on ice. It is as if they had chosen the site of 
their wigwams at this very season of the year. 
March 14, 1842. It is not easy to find one 
