THE USE OF COPPER. 



257 



if 







Davis have pointed out, " the fires upon the altar were suf- 



ficiently intense to melt down the copper implements and 



ornaments deposited upon them. The hint thus afforded 



does not seem to have been seized upon." Mr. FIG. ITS. 



Perkins, indeed, who has devoted much attention 



to these implements, is of opinion that some of 



them were cast ; and this view has also been 



adopted by Mr. Foster and Professor Butler. Mr. 



Evans has also called attention to a passage in 



which De Champlain, the founder of Quebec, tells 



us that in 1610 he met a party of Algonquins, one 



of whom met him on his barque, and after conver- 



sation, "tira d'une sac une piece de cuivre de la 



longueur d'un pied qu'il me donna, lequel estoit 



fort beau et bien franc, me donnant a entendre 



qu'il en avoit en quantite la ou il 1'avoit pris, qui 



c'etoit sur le bort d'une riviere proche d'une grand 



lac et qu'ils le prenoient par morceaux, et le faisant 



fondre le mettoient en lames, et avec des pierres le 



rendoient uny."* Mr. Foster gives a plate t show- V '( 



ing what he considers to be the mark left by the 



line of junction between the two halves of the 



mould. Dr. Schmidt J has, however, given strong- 



reasons for doubting this conclusion, and certainly 



the marks shown on the above-mentioned figures 



have rather the appearance of weathering. On the 



whole, though it would seem that they sometimes Co 



at any rate softened the metal by heat, we have spear-head. 



not, I think, at present any sufficient evidence that the Pted- 



skins were acquainted with the art of casting. This is the 



more surprising, because, as Schoolcraft tells us, "in almost 



* Les Voyages du Sieur de Cham- 



plain. Paris, 1613. 



f Pre-historic Races of the United 

 States, p. 259. 



t Ar. fur. Anthropologie, 1878, 

 p. 65. 



Indian Tribes, p. 97. 



