If there be anything in the ground itself to indicate the
position of the hole, you have made a clumsy cache. It is not a bad plan,
after the things are buried, and before the tent is removed, to scratch a
furrow a couple of inches deep, and three or four feet long, and picking
up any bits of stick, reeds, or straw, that may be found at hand lying
upon the ground, to place them end to end in it. These will be easy
enough to find again by making a cross furrow, and when found will lead
you straight above the depot. They would never excite suspicion, even if
a native got hold of them; for they would appear to have been dropped or
blown on the ground by chance, not seen and trampled in. Mr. Atkinson
mentions an ingenious way by which the boundaries of valuable mining
property are marked in the Ural, a modification of which might serve for
indicating caches. A trench is dug and filled with charcoal beat small,
and then covered over. The charcoal lasts for ever, and cannot be
tampered with without leaving an unmistakable mark.
Secreting Jewels.--Before going to a rich but imperfectly civilised
country, travellers sometimes buy jewels and bury them in their flesh.
They make a gash, put the jewels in, and allow the flesh to grow over
them as it would over a bullet. The operation is more sure to succeed if
the jewels are put into a silver tube with rounded ends, for silver does
not irritate.
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