412 



an existence. It is true, tliat various articles have been found, 

 made of copper, usually taken from the Mounds, even as far south 

 as Florida, but which, it is almost certain, had their origin in the 

 deposits of native copper of the Lake Superior region ; where rude 

 excavations and stone implements give frequent and reliable evi- 

 dence of the source from whence such articles, and they are compa- 

 ratively rare, have been derived. 



But the Stone Period of the inhabitants of our portion of the 

 Continent is rich beyond all precedent, as far as we are able to 

 judge, in specimens, scattered over the whole face of the country, 

 but recent in date for, they were left by the " Red Man,'^ whose 

 fate it has been to pass out of existence before the path of the White 

 Invader, leaving only his traditions, and these evidences of his hard, 

 but inevitable destiny. 



Is it not singular, that, in all ages and in nearly all portions of the 

 world, the same means, in this rude state of existence, should be 

 employed by Man to supply his wants ? From it, we may draw con- 

 clusions that, in the words of Dr. Davis, the author of ^' Crania 

 Britannica,'^ when discussing the subject in connection with the 

 Egyptians and Ancient Britons, " plead for the unity of the 

 human race much more powerfully and more rationally than the 

 metaphysical arguments, with which the doctrine is usually sus- 

 tained.^' '^It shows that man, in the same state, is everywhere the 

 same ; so much so, that the selfsame simple ornaments, produced 

 by the selfsame instruments or the same materials, are to be seen 

 everywhere alike. Nay, we may go further than this even, and 

 show that the same instrument is made everywhere by the same 

 number of strokes, given in exactly the same direction. There 

 must, therefore, have been the same wants, the same powers and 

 capabilities, the same skill, and actually the same taste or the 

 same desire for the beautiful, with exactly the same means of 

 gratifying it." 



In a preceding paragraph are the words " but of recent date :'' 

 this expression is used for reasons that will appear in the course of 

 this communication, for there are Tribes still living on this Continent 

 who use stone implements, because the white trader has not yet 

 supplied them with the metal which supersedes its use 3 and some of 

 the specimens, which arc herewith submitted to the inspection of 

 the Society, were derived from Tribes that have given way recently 

 to the gold-seeking pioneers of California. These facts bring us to 

 the immediate object of this communication, which is, to point out 



