24 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



hatchets of copper alloyed with tin. It would seem that this 

 hatchet was obtained from that direction, or made by some 

 Indian artisan after intercourse with the whites had instructed 

 him in the art of working metals. At present it is i)i'udent to 

 say that the discovery of tliis relic is an anomalous fact, which 

 investigatoi-s sliould only bear in mind, without \'enturing to 

 make it the basis of deductions or inferences of any kind. 



Mr Squier was one of the most accurate and judicious of 

 w^riters and these words may have held in check the extrava- 

 gaut surmises and theories in which some of his contemporaries 

 indulged. At the same time some of our best authorities have 

 determined that many articles which appear to have been cast 

 were really brought into shape by hammering. The first im- 

 pressions are of a rude casting. 



Dr Charles Rau at first allowed the casting of this article. — 

 Rmi, p. 92. In collecting his papers in 1882 he made a pref- 



« 



atory note as follows: 



Reference is made to a ca^t copjjer ax plowed up near Auburn, 

 Cayuga CO. N. Y. and first described and figured by Mr Squier 

 on p. 78 of his Aboiiglnal moinunents of the state of Ntio York 

 (Wash. 1849). Several years ago, while in conversation with 

 Mr Squier at his residence in New York I happened to see the 

 same ax lying on the mantelpiece. In handling the object I 

 noticed that a small portion had been removed from it — fo^ 

 close examination by an expert, as Mr Squier informed me. 

 This examination resulted in the discovery that the ax was 

 not cast but hammered into shape fi-om native copper. The 

 former inhabitants of North America, 1 still belieA^e — notwith- 

 standing all assertions to the contrary — were unacquainted with 

 the art of melting copper.— i^ai^, pref. p. vii 



As to modes of working copjier and the differences between 

 the native metal and that brought by Europeans, reference may 

 be made to a \aluable paper by ^Ir Clarence l^. Moore. He 

 gives analj^ses of several articles from recent New York sites, 

 but was unable to obtain those of native copper. From other 

 sources some were procured. In that ]»aper he quotes a per- 

 sonal letter from Prof. F. W. I'utnam which is of general 

 interest and is therefore reproduced here: 



Just after I wrote my little paper on co])j)(a' in the museum 

 as the beginning of a series of papers on the use of metals, 



