IN NORTH A]\[EEICA. 187 



as lie was in that ])art of the world, of his methods of obtniiiiiig subsist- 

 ence, liis <;eiieral decree of develoimieiit, and, incidentally, his stealtii 

 and ferocity in attack on liis neolithic fellow men, than is contained in 

 this book. After a journey of several months throuy,h barren wastes, 

 dnrin*;' which he endured the fireatest hardshii)S and was in dan«;er of 

 starvation, llearne reached the Coijperinine liivei', and, after his sav- 

 ages had surprised and murdered some unsuspecting Esquimaux, he 

 visited the copper '' mine," which he thus describes: ''This mine, if it 

 deserve that appellation, is no more than an entire jumble of rocks and 

 gravel, which has been rent many ways by an eartlnpiake. Through 

 these ruins there runs a small river. The Indians who were the occa- 

 sion of my undertaking this journey represented this mine to l)e so rich 

 and valuable that if a factory were built at the river a ship might 

 l)e ballasted with the ore instead of stone. - - - liy their account 

 the hills were entirely composed of that metal, all in handy lumps like 

 a heai> of pebbles. But their account differed so nun-h from the truth 

 that 1 and almost all my companions exi)euded near four hours in 

 search of some of this metal, with such i)Oor success that among ns all 

 only one [)iece of any size could be found. This, however, was remark- 

 ably good, and weighed above 4 ])ounds. I believe the copper has 

 formerly been in much greater plenty; for in many places, both on the 

 surface and in the cavities and crevices of the rocks, the stones are 

 much tinged with verdigris." They afterwards found smaller ](ieces 

 of the metal. 



He goes on to remark that the Indians imagined that every bit of 

 copper they found resembled some object in nature, but hardly any two 

 could agree what animal or i)art of an aninud a given piece was like. 

 He also says that by the help of firc^ and two stones the Indians could 

 beat a piece of eopi)er into any shape they wished. The Iiulians were 

 really living in a copper age of their own. Hearne says: "Before 

 Churchill lliver was settled by the Hudson's Bay ('onipany, which was 

 not more than tifty years previous to this journey being undertaken, 

 the northern Indians had no other metal but copper among them, 

 except a small quantity of ironwork, which a, ])arty of them who vis- 

 ited York Fort about the year ITlo or 1714 i)urchased, and a few pieces 

 of old iron foun<l at ('hur<'hill Biver, which had undonl)tedly been left 

 there by ("apt. Monk. This being the cas<', nnndx'rs ol" them from all 

 (pKU'ters used every summei- to resort to these hills in search of coi>per, 

 of which they made hatchets, ice-chisels, bayonets, kni\es, awls, arrow 

 heads, etc. The many ])aths that had l)een beaten by the Indians on 

 these occasions and which are yet in many places very i)erfect, espe- 

 cially on tlw dry ridges and hills, is snri)rising. The Copper Indians set 

 a gr<'at vahu; on their miti\'e metal even to this day, and i)refcr it to iron 

 for almost every use exceptthat of a hatchet, a knife, and an awl; for 

 these three necessary im])lements c()])pcr makes but a very i)oor substi- 

 tute." The Esquimaux tents were plundered of their copper by 



