IN NORTH AMERICA. 181 



from the copper to secure the latter. Wlien tliey caiiie upon mass cop- 

 per tliey were compelled to abandon it, after liammcrini;' off i)r()jcctin<;- 

 pieces, because they bad no tools I'or cutting' it up and r('m()\iuy it. 

 Several instances of this sort have been fouud. 



The ancient mines were not mines in the strict sense of the word, 

 because they were not underground workings. As described by AVhit- 

 tlesey, who examined them at an early date,* they were shallow pits 

 or trenches, and sometimes excavations in the faces of the cliffs, scat- 

 tered along the mineral range from Ontonagon to near the end of the 

 peninsula. At the time modern mining began they had become mere 

 depressions in the ground, owing to the accumulations of earth, leaves, 

 and decayed vegetable matter within them. Forest trees were grow- 

 ing in them and upon the waste thrown out of them, so that it was 

 diflicult to distinguish them from natural depressions due to the weather- 

 ing of the rock beneath the soil, or, in some cases, from the hollows 

 left by the ui)turned roots of fallen tiees. After their character was 

 discovered, however, they served as guides to the uiodern miners, who 

 often sank shfifts upon the copper bearing rocks, which were revealed 

 by clearing them out. No mine has been oi)ened on the lake that was 

 not thus "prospected" by the old miners. Trenches like those on 

 Keweenaw Point and Ontonagon, but, if anything, more elaborate, were 

 found on Isle Royale, and Sir William Logan mentioned similar work- 

 ings on the east shore of the lake near jMaimanse. All of these work- 

 ings contained stone hammers or mauls, amounting in all to a countless 

 number. 



A few wooden shovels, strongly resembling canoe paddles, were 

 found in some of the diggings, together with the remains of wooden 

 bowls for baling, birch-bark baskets, and some si)ear or lance heads 

 and other articles of copper. In Ontonagon County the old w<n'kings 

 were for the most part shallow depressions oidy a few feet<leep. Some 

 of them in the bluff jvhich showed outcroi)X)ings of coi)i)er rock were 

 liardly large enough to shelter a bear, while others weie larger. In 

 Houghton County (i. e., on the Keweenaw promontory) on the (,>uincy 

 location, theie were broad and deep pits in the gravel, i)robably dug 

 for the float copi^er, lumps of which arc still met with in the neighbor- 

 hood. At the Central mine, further outon the point, there was a i)it 

 filled in with rubbish, which was at lirst supposed to be mitural. It 

 was 5 feet deep and 30 long. On examination, a "flat ])iece of coi)i)er, 

 5 to inches thick and 9 feet long, was found, which ibrmed i)art of 

 a piece still in the vein. IJioken stone mauls were all about it, show- 

 ing that the miners could do notliiiig with it. Its upper edge had been 

 beaten by the stone mauls so severely that a lip or s)roJecting rim had 

 ])een formed, which was bent downwards." Otiier localities toward 

 the end of the peninsula and at the Copper Falls location are described 

 by Mr. Whittlesey, and as late as 181)0 depressions in the ground, of 



Smithsonian Contributions, vol. xiii, 1862. 



