PRE-ARYAN AMERICAN MAN. 67 
Such knowledge, partial as it was, must have been derived from the south. Every- 
where to the northward we look in vain for anything more than the mere hammered 
native copper, untouched by fire. Dr. J. W. Foster does indeed quote Mr. Perkins, who 
himself possesses sixty copper implements, including knives, spear-heads, chisels, and 
objects of anomalous form, as having arrived at the conclusion “that, by reason of certain 
markings, it was evident that the Mound-builders possessed the art of smelting copper,” * 
but the illustrations produced in proof of it scarcely bear out the opinion. The same idea 
has been repeatedly advanced; but the contents of the Mounds amply prove that if such 
aknowledge had dawned on their builders, it was turned to no practical account. Mr. Charles 
Rau in his “ Ancient aboriginal trade in North America,” says “although the fire on the 
hearths or altars now inclosed by the sacrificial Mounds was sometimes sufficiently strong 
to melt the deposited copper articles, it does [not] seem that this proceeding induced the 
ancient inhabitants to avail themselves of fire in working copper; they persisted in the 
tedious practise of hammering. Yet one copper axe, evidently cast, and resembling those 
taken from the Mounds of Ohio, has been ploughed up near Auburn, in Cayuga in the 
State of New York. This specimen, which bears no trace of use, may date from the earlier 
times of European colonization. It certainly would be wrong to place much stress on such 
an isolated case.” + The well known volume of Messrs. Squire and Davis furnishes illus- 
trations of copper and other metallic relics from the Mounds of Ohio.t Mr. J. T. Short 
engraves a variety of similar relics from Wisconsin, where they appear to have been found 
in unusual abundance. § In the Annual Report of the Historical Society of Wisconsin for 
- 1878, the copper implements in their collection are stated to number one hundred and 
ninety implements classified as spear or dirk-heads, knives, chisels, axes, angurs, gads, and 
drills; in addition to beads, tubes, and other personal ornaments made out of thin sheets 
of hammered copper. Dr. J. W. Foster has furnished illustrations of the various types, 
- from the valuable collection of Mr. Perkins. || Colonel Charles C. Jones engraves a specimen 
of the rarely found copper implements of Georgia ;{ and Dr. Abbott shows the prevailing 
forms of the same class of relics found along the whole northern Atlantic seaboard. ** All 
tell the same tale of rudest manipulation by a people ignorant of the working of metals 
with the use of fire. 
And yet the native copper was ready to hand, in a form, and in quantity unknown 
elsewhere. No such supplies of the pure metal invited the industry of the first Asiatic or 
European metallurgists. The Cassiterides yielded in abundance the ores of copper and 
tin ; but these had to be smelted, and worked with all the accumulated results of tentative 
skill, before they yielded the copper or more useful bronze. By whom, or where this first 
knowledge was mastered is unknown; the tendency is still to look to Asia, to the first 
home of the Aryans, or perhaps to Phoenicia, for the birth of this early art. Yet if the 



* Prehistoric Races of the United States, p. 259. 
+ Smithsonian Report, 1572, p.353. The important word not supplied here, it is obvious from the context is 
absent by a mere typographical error. 
Ÿ Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, vol. i, pp. 196-207. 
@ The North Americans of Antiquity, p. 95. 
|| Prehistoric Races of the United States, pp. 251-259. 
{ Antiquities of the Southern Indians, p. 225. 
** Primitive Industry, pp. 411-422. 
