ANCIENT COPPER-MINES OF ISLE ROY ALE. 607 



its own independence, an almost constant warfare against its neigh- 

 bors " (" Smithsonian Contributions," vol. i, p. 44). 



2. The mound-builders occupied the entire countr}^ from Lake 

 Superior, at least,* on the north, to the Gulf of Mexico on the south, 

 and from the Alleghanies, at least, on the east, to the Sierras on the 

 west. This is demonstrated not so much by the distribution of the 

 mounds though they are said by Lewis and Clark to occur on the 

 upper waters of the Missouri, and, by Mr. A. Barrandt, in the valley 

 of the Yellowstone as by the existence of copper implements from 

 Lake Superior in the same mounds with mica from the Alleghanies, 

 pearls from the Gulf shores and. from the Carolinas, and sharks' teeth 

 from the cretaceous beds of the South and. West. 



3. They were an agricultural joeople, of generally homogeneous 

 customs, habits, religion, and government, each tribe carrying on a 

 trade with surrounding tribes, and some of them with distant tribes. 



4. They worked copper in a cold state, having no knowledge of 

 iron, nor of the methods of smelting any of the ores of the metals by 

 the aid of fire. 



5. They built extensive earthworks and mounds, both for purposes 

 of warfare and for sepulture. 



6. They exhibited very frequently a remarkable flattening of the 

 shin-bone {^platycyieinisni). 



7. They made a coarse kind of cloth, by twisting and weaving the 

 fibers and bast of various plants. 



8. They made pottery of clay, which they hardened by burn- 

 ing, and rudely ornamented with figures of animals, or by simpler 

 lining. 



9. They wrought stone, making axes, arrow and spear heads, 

 knives, wedges, pestles, discoidal stones, tubes, pipes, beads ; and they 

 had a high regard for mirrors of mica. 



10. They made rude sculptures, in stone and burned clay, of ani- 

 mals and of the human face. 



11. They had no knowledge of writing by the use of an alphabet, 

 nor hieroglyphics ; but sometimes resorted to pictures to convey infor- 

 mation. 



12. They employed shells, pearls, sharks' teeth, obsidian, copper, 

 silver, steatite, black and mottled slate, mica, coralline limestone, the 

 bones of some animals, and some other minerals, especially galena and 

 hematite, for making articles of personal adornment. 



13. Besides rude sculptures of most of the present animals of the 

 larger types, the elephant (or mastodon) was also known to them, as 

 evinced by the " elephant-mound " in western Wisconsin, by the dis- 



* Along the boundary-line between Minnesota and the Canadian territory are occa- 

 sional mounds. One very large one is on the Canadian side of Rainy Lake River, at the 

 Big Sioux Rapids (N. Butler). They are found near Grand Marais, on the north shore 

 of Lake Superior. 



