IN NORTH AMERICA. 183 



mining- could be found. As usual, stone luxmniers and cliarcoal were 

 found in tlie trenches. A remarkably deep trench which was tilled 

 with earth and leaves was disco\ered at tlie South Pewabie (now 

 Atlantic) mine, several miles west of the last locality, which extended 

 2 or 3 feet into the solid rock. At the? bottom " was a well-delined 

 transverse tissnre vein of (juartz, about l.* feet wide, containing- here 

 and there chunks of solid copper. Hy the several pits sunk on the 

 course of the vein, ])roof was had that it had been worked sui)erticially 

 several hundred feet in length. I walked through it a long distance. 

 The surface of the formation was shattered and decomposed, hence the 

 old miners could come at the quartz handily. They did lu^t carry the 

 rock out to the surface to dump it, but piled it up neatly on each side 

 of the drift. At one point I found a handsome specimen of ((uartz and 

 copper laid up carefully in a niche. It weighed several pounds. - - - 

 As in other cases, we had proof that the ancient miner did not sink 

 any shafts and do real mining; he was only a surface gleaner." Of 

 the ancient workings on Isle Ivoyale, on the north shore of the lake, 

 which were very extensive and have been described as extending 20 

 feet and more in the solid rock, Mr. Forster says: " As I understand it, 

 these extensive works were upon a high outcrop, promising natural 

 drainage. And I should infer from what I heard from Mr. A. C, Davis, 

 the agent, and others who opened the Minong mine* that the ancient 

 workings were among disturbed shattered rocks, among which were 

 found much mass cojiper and barrel work. The ancients Avere after 

 these pieces of copper. Mr. Davis found many considerabh^ masses, 

 handled and beaten by the ancient men, which were too large for them 

 to carry away." t 



*Oii Islo K()ya](\ 



tFroiiialotter to tlie writer. Mr. Forster refers to the views of another mining man 

 on the old copper workings on Keweenaw, wlio wns the agi-nt (or snjjerintendent) of 

 the Mesnard mine, and his opinions as an export are vahiable. Mr. Forster's letter 

 continnes as follows : 



"Mr. .laeob llouglitou, in a paper entitled 'The Ancient Copper Mines of Lake 

 Superior,' says, s])eaking of the so-called ancient mines: 



" 'Tlicir mining operations were crude and primitive. The process was to heat 

 tlic embedding rocks by bnilding fires on the ontcro])s of tins v(dns or Ixdts, to par- 

 tially disintegrate the rocks by contraction produced by the sudden throwing on of 

 water, and to compbite the removal of the pieces t)f native cop])er by mauling off the 

 adhering ])articles of rock with stone hammers. This is attested by the pres- 

 ence in all ancient pits of large quantities of charcoal and numberless hammers, the 

 latter sbowing marks of long usage. Tl'e miiicrs Lad not advanced to any knowl- 

 edge of the artiticial elevation of water, as is shown by the lact that api)arently, in 

 all cases, tlie pits have only been sunk to a de])tli where the limit in num power in 

 baling out the water is reached. 



"• The pits, the charcoal, the stone hnnmiers, and the imi)lemen(s and tools made 

 of copper are the only relics left of the races that wrought these mines. Neither a 

 grave, vestige of a habitaticm, skeleton, or l)one has been found. ' 



''In connection with these last remarks by Mr. Houghton, I beg to state that while 

 I was State engineer on the Tortage Lake and Lake Superior Ship Canal, the super- 



