320 NORTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 



tense to melt down the copper implements and ornaments deposited upon them. 

 The hint thus ajfforded does not seem to have been seized upon." * 



This is less surprising than it at first appears, if we remember that round Lake 

 Superior^ and in some other still more northern localities, copper is found native 

 in large quantities, and the Indians had therefore nothing to do but to break off 

 pieces and hammer them into the required shape. Hearne's celebrated journey 

 to the mouth of the Coppermine river was undertaken in order to examine the 

 locality whence the natives of that district obtained the metal. In this case it 

 occurred in lumps actually on the surface, and the Indians seemed to have picked 

 up what they could, without attempting anything that could be called mining. 

 Around Lake Superior, however, the case is very different. A short account of 

 the ancient copper-mines is given by Messrs. Squier and Davis in the work 

 already so often ci/ed, by Jlr. Squier in " The Aboriginal Monuments of the 

 State of New York," and by Mr. Lapham,t while the same subject is treated at 

 considerable length by Prof. Wilson. The works appear to have been first dis- 

 covered in 1847, by the agent of the Minnesota Mining Company. 



"Following up the indications of a continuous depression in the soil, he came 

 at length to a cavern where he found several porcupines had fixed their quarters 

 for hybernation; but detecting evidences of artificial excavation, he proceeded to 

 clear out the accumulated soil, and not only exposed to view a vein of copper, 

 but found in the rubbish numerous stone mauls and hammers of the ancient 

 workmen. Subsequent observations brought to light ancient excavations of 

 great extent, frequently from twenty-five to thirty feet deep, and scattered over 

 an area of several miles. The rubbish taken from these is piled up in mounds 

 alongside ; while the trenches have been gradually refilled with the soil and de- 

 caying vegetable matter gathered through the long centuries since their deser- 

 tion; and over all, the giants of the forest have grown, and withered, and fallen 

 to decay. Mr. Knapp, the agent of the Minnesota Mining Company, counted 

 395 annular rings in a hemlock tree, which grew on one of the mounds of earth 

 thrown out of an ancient mine. Mr. Foster also notes the great size and age of 

 a pine stump, which must have grown, flourished, and died since the work8 

 were deserted; and Mr. 0. Whittlesey not only refers to living trees now 

 flourishing in the gathered soil of the abandoned trenches, upwards of thre« 

 hundred years old, but he adds, ' On the same spot there are the decayed trnnks 

 of a preceding generation or generations of trees, that have arrived at maturity. 

 and fallen down from old age.' According to the same writer, in a communica- 

 tion made to the American Association, at the Montreal meeting in 18">7, these 

 ancient works extend over a track from 100 to 150 miles in length, along the 

 southern shore of the lake." 



In another excavation Avas found a detached mass of native copper, weighing 

 upwards of six tons. It rested in an artificial cradle of black oak, partly pre- 

 served by immersion in water. Various implements and tools of the same metal 

 were found with it. The commonest of these are the stone mauls or hammers, 

 of which from one place ten cart-loads were obtained. With these were "stone 

 axes of large size, made of greenstone, and shaped to receive the withe-handles." 

 "Some large round greenstone masses, that had apparently been used for 

 sledges, were also found. They had round holes bored in them to a depth of 

 several inches, which seemed to have been designed for wooden plugs, to which 

 withe-handles might be attached, so that several men could swing them with 

 sufiicicnt force to break the rock and the projecting masses of copper. Some of 

 them were broken, and some of the projecting ends of rock exhibited marks of 

 having been battered in the manner here suggested." | 



* One "cast" copper axe is, however, recorded as having been found in the State of New- 

 York, but there is no evidence to show bj whom it was made, 

 t Loc. cit., p. 74. 

 t Prof. W. W. Mather, in a letter to Mr. Squier, 1. c, p. 184. 



