METALS, MINERALS, FOSSILS. ETC. 279 



ous and intricate, and the results hardly worth the labor of their development ; 

 that is, however, a question open to discussion. The mode of investigation here 

 indicated is, at any rate, the only one which philosophy sanctions, and which can 

 ever lead to satisfactory results. 



The Metals. — Silver and copper are the only metals, pertaining to the race of 

 the mounds, which have been taken from their depositories. The discovery of gold 

 has been vaguely announced, but the fact is not well attested.* It is not unlikely 

 that articles of gold have been found, with brass dial-plates, silver crosses, and other 

 vestiges of Eui-opean art, among the recent deposits in the mounds ; and it is 

 far from impossible that the metal may yet be disclosed, under such circumstances 

 as to justify the conclusion that it was not, as from existing facts it seems to have 

 been, an entire stranger to the ancient people. Its discovery will be no matter of 

 surprise ; as yet, however, we have no well authenticated instance of its occur- 

 rence. M ention is made, in a published work, of a silver cup, " finely gilded in 

 the interior," which was said to have been found in a mound at Marietta. It will 

 be early enough to ask for the verification of the statement, when any one shall be 

 found to claim for the cup any other than a European origin, or assign it an 

 antiquity beyond the period of the first European intercourse. 



As has been already observed, considerable quantities of wrought, and some 

 small fragments of unwrought native copper, have been extracted from the mounds. 

 Axes, as we have seen, have been found, wrought from a single piece, weighing 

 upwards of two pounds each. The metal appears, in all cases, to have been 

 worked in a cold state. This is the more remarkable from the fact that, in some 

 instances, the fires upon the altars were sufficiently intense to melt down the cop- 

 per implements and ornaments deposited upon them. The hint thus afforded does 

 not seem to have been seized upon. In consideration of the amount of the metal 

 discovered, implying a large original supply, and the fact that it is occasionally 

 found combined with silver in the peculiar manner characterizing the native 

 deposits upon the shores of Lake Superior, we are led to conclude that it was 

 principally, if not wholly, derived from that region. This conclusion is sustained 

 by the recent investigations upon the shores of that lake. These have led to the 

 discovery that the aborigines, from a very remote period, resorted there to obtain 

 the metal. There is also evidence that some of the more productive veins were 

 anciently worked to a considerable extent. "A few rods north of the present 

 ' location ' and works of the North-west Mining Company, and near the foot of the 

 bluff, are excavations in the earth and rock, in which are found numerous rude 

 implements of stone, such as hammers and wedges. Pieces of copper, partially 

 wrought into shape, are to be found at various places around the works. Upon 

 the earth and rocks thrown from the pits, large trees are now growing. One of 

 these pits is sunk almost entirely in the rock, and is not far from seven feet deep. 



* Ai-chajologia Americana, vol. i. p. 176. The rcpoit here alluded lo lias been traced to its source. 

 The ornament was not of gold but of'coj.iper. 



