O X T UK S 11 () I! E S O F L A K E SUPERIOR. 



V.i 



oblong stones. Different parties of men may have preferred tools of different kinds, 

 which would account for mauls, which arc seen at one mine, being among them- 

 selves alike, but dissimilar to those at other places. 



Pis 



Broken Maul, Central Mine. — Without groove, ^ size, weight 8| lbs. 



The usual remains were here thrown out, consisting of charcoal, ashes, and broken 

 wall rock. 



The general bearing of the vein is 10° or 12° west of north. The section is 

 made across it, east and west, looking south, and is vertical. 



As the labor of uncovering the mass of copper progressed, another one was met 

 with, overlapping the first, and adhering to the east wall. Further on, in the adit, 

 a third mass was found, attached to the western wall, partly overlapping the one 

 which the ancients had left. 



By stoping out a space about sixty feet in length by twenty deep, on the vein, 

 the Company took out fifty-three tons of mass copper. Such unwieldy pieces 

 appear to have been beyond the control of the old miners. Their object seems to 

 have been to secure small lumps, such as could be fashioned without melting. 

 Whatever pieces might, have been detached, by diligent pounding with their stone 

 mauls, were broken off, and the remainder was abandoned. 



It was impossible for them to cut into pieces, reduce by melting, raise from the 

 pit, or transport blocks of metal weighing many tons. There are neither marks of 

 a cutting tool upon them, nor of the action of fire. It is quite singular that they 

 had not discovered the art of melting copper, which can be effected so easily in an 

 open fire made of wood, but no evidences have fallen under our notice that this 

 was done bv that ancient race. 



