12 



A X ( ' I V X T MINI X a 



Thin sheets of copper were lefl standing at the bottom of the ancient excavation, 

 which might readily have been extracted, and it seems singular that they were not. 



Central Mine. — Near the road from the "North Western" to the "Winthrop" 



Mine, in an open grove of sugar trees, a depression was observed about five feet 

 deep and thirt) feel in length. It was generally free from water, and differed so 

 little from cavities that are not artificial, but which are due to geological causes, 

 that it did not attract much attention. 



Mr. John Slawson, the agent of the North Western Mine, after a careful surface 

 examination, concluded that this pit was not wholly due to nature, and the tract 

 was on that account purchased for mining, in the fall of 1854. 



Fig. 6. 



Central Mine. Section of the vein and old pit. East and w«l. — A .1. Trap rock wall of the vein c/ J. — a. Ancient 

 excavation partly filled. c c. Masses of native copper in the vein. — l b. Drift gravel covering the rocks. 



The Central Mining Compan) having been organized, a drain was constructed to 

 take off the water, which was no sooner done than all doubts were removed; about 

 five feet in depth of leaves and rotten sticks had accumulated at the bottom, among 

 which a hard substance could he felt with a stick. 



This proved to he a flat piece of native copper C, from five to nine inches thick, and 

 nine feet in length, forming part of a large vein </ <L as shown in the profile. The 

 vein material had been worked a\\a\ from one foot to eighteen inches along side of 

 it. and it extended forward as well as downward in the vein. Its upper edge had 

 been beaten by the stone mauls so severely, that a lip. or projecting rim, had been 

 formed, which was bent downwards, over the sides. A large number of broken 

 mauls were found in the place, and around it on the surface, all of them without 

 grooves, of which the annexed woodcut is an illustration. 



I have seen similar ones on the Humboldt Location, next west of Copper Falls. 

 Where this class of stone hammers is found, those with grooves an- wanting. The 

 grooveless ones appear to have been used for percussion only at <»i< end,as though 

 the manner of holding them was such that a blow was not given on the other. 



The Peruvians have a copper axe without an eye, or a groove, to which, how- 

 ever, thej attach a handle in the form of a split stick, hound with thongs. The 

 ancient miners, probably, hail some such mode of tying a handle to these smooth 



