ANTIQUITIES OF WISCONSIN. 127 



dry, and healthful ; the climate milder than that of the interior of New York ; 

 both summer and winter are tempered by the vicinity of the great lakes; and the 

 season and the soil are favorable to vegetation. 



It may be assumed, therefore, that the seat of these remarkable works is well 

 adapted to the support of a numerous population, supplying, as it does, the means 

 of savage comfort, and even luxury, without the necessity of laborious exertion. 

 A nation so located, sheltered on three sides by great bodies of water, and favored 

 with such facilities for interior communication, we might expect to find maintain- 

 ing its independence, and cultivating arts or founding institutions which would 

 leave numerous and distinguishable traces behind them. Yet, the emblematic 

 monuments excepted, no prominent relics have been discovered. The remains of 

 protective, and of ceremonial enclosures, the usual evidences of stationary popula- 

 tion, are almost entirely wanting ; and only the mounds of more recent date appear 

 to contain the ornaments and utensils so commonly placed in the graves of the 

 aborigines. 



Though one of the youngest States, "Wisconsin is among the oldest historical 

 regions of the Union. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, the French 

 missionaries ascended the Ottawa River from the St. Lawrence, and advanced 

 towards the Great Lakes ; and before Boston was settled they had established posts 

 in the neighborhood of Lake Michigan. In 1639, Nicolet, the interpreter, explored 

 Green Bay, ascended Fox River, and embarked on the Wisconsin. Thirty-four 

 years later, Marquette and Jolliet, following in his steps, completed the discovery 

 and exploration of the Mississippi. Thus the rivers and lakes of Wisconsin were 

 made memorable by first opening the way to the interior of the West. 



Another circumstance of antiquarian interest is connected with the territory 

 bounding on Lake Superior. The copper mines, that have recently attracted so 

 much attention, are supposed to have been wrought at some distant period by the 

 natives. It has even been conjectured that they were the source of supply to the 

 whole aboriginal population of the country north of the Gulf of Mexico; and that 

 remote tribes were accustomed to send deputations to these localities, or obtained 

 the metal by traffic with natives nearer the mines. Mr. Schoolcraft has suggested 

 that the region may have been consecrated to neutrality like that of the celebrated 

 pipe-stone quarries, and that parties of different tribes, thus secured from molesta- 

 tion, may have assembled there at certain seasons to procure their supplies of ore. 



The reports of Dr. Jackson, Messrs. Foster and Whitney, and others, employed 

 by Congress as topographical and geological surveyors, afford curious accounts of 

 the evidences of ancient operations observed by them. They found not only 

 masses of native copper from which portions had been rudely severed, but excava- 

 tions in the solid rock, apparently wrought with great labor, with the simple im- 

 plements of the savage— the tools with which they had worked lying near in large 

 quantities. 



There may, however, be some danger of confounding the results of the labors 

 of Europeans at the mines, with those of the natives. As early as 1632, the 

 existence of the mines was known to the French; for they are mentioned in 

 the narrative of Gabriel Sagard, printed at Paris in that year ; and they must have 



