10 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The savages respect this lake as a divinity, and sacrifice to 

 it . . . They often find at the bottom of the water, pieces of 

 pure cox>per, weighing from 10 to 20 pounds. I have seen these 

 many times in the hands of the savages, and as they are super- 

 stitious, they regard them as so many divinities, or as presents 

 that the gods who are at the bottom of the water have made 

 them to be the cause of their good fortune; it is for this that they 

 keep these pieces of copper wrapped up among their most 

 precious movables; there are some who have preserved them 

 more than 50 years; others have had them in their families from 

 time immemorial, and cherish them as household gods. 



The truth seems to be that the interior aborigines had ceased 

 to use native copper implements more than 300 years ago, some 

 resuming their use at a much later day. Where native copper 

 was known it had become almost sacred, not to be used in com- 

 mon ways. Farther east it was little known, occurring on no 

 village sites in New York, and rarely in camps. 



The missionary did not then see the great copper rock project- 

 ing from the water, of which he had been told, but later travelers 

 did. He recorded the fact that passers-by cut pieces from this. 

 This is described in the Relation of 1670. ^' Advancing to the 

 end of the lake, and returning a day's journey along the southern 

 side, one sees at the water's edge a rock of copper which weighs 

 at least seven or eight hundred pounds, so hard that steel will 

 scarcely penetrate it. When however it is heated, it is cut like 

 lead." 



There are many other mentions of plates and masses of copper 

 seen, but these need not be quoted here. One other quotation 

 will be made to show the sacred character that it had gained, 

 after having had common uses. This is from the same Relation: 



At that time the savages told a story of a floating island which 

 approached or receded with the wind. Four men reached this 

 one day and prepared their dinner in their usual way. Heating 

 the stones thev found and casting them into the water to make 

 it boil, they discovered that they were copper and that this lay 

 plentifully around. After eating they loaded their canoe with 

 pieces and plates of the metal and were soon homeward bound. 

 They had not gone far when a great voice called to them, asking 

 whv thev carried off the cradles and the diversions of his children. 

 ^' The plates of copper are the cradles, because among the savages 

 they are made of only one or two boards joined together, on 



