136 TRANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAX IXSTITUTK. [VOL. J V. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Copper and Iron Implements. 



copper implements. 



Rev. E. Petitot, arguing in favor of the contemporaneity in the same 

 part of America of the bronze and the iron ages with the palaioHthic and 

 the neolithic epochs, has the following to say : — 



" Avant I'arrivee des Europeans dans la vallee du Mac-Kenzie, ks 

 Couteaux-Jaunes et les Flancs-de-Chien connaissaient I'usage du cuivre 

 natif qu'ils trouverent sur les bords de la riviere Copper-mine. lis s'en 

 fabriquaient des coutcaux, d'ou leur est venu leur noni. lis faisaient en 

 meme temps usage de la pierre polie. Done nous avons ici contempor- 

 aneity de la pierre polie et du bronze. De leur cot^, les Peaux-de-Lievre, 

 qui ignoraient le cuivre et qui ne se dounaient pas la peine de polir leurs 

 instruments de pierre, avaient d^couvert le long du Mac-Kenzie, a 

 I'embouchure de la riviere LU'-ota-la-de/in, du ferologiste, et ils en fabri- 

 quaient des aiguillettes et des alenes de quatre pouces de long qu'ils 

 troquaient avec les Thekkan6 et autres tribus meridionales des Mon- 

 tagnes Rocheuses contre des peaux d'elan a raison de dix pour une 

 alene. * 



It is likely that mo^t archaeologists will refuse to concede that the use 

 of copper knives by a savage people entitles the makers to be regarded 

 as having reached that stage of industrial advancement commonly called 

 the bronze age. The use of copper is in this case too limited they will 

 probably say. This reason, plausible as it certainly appears at first, is 

 after reflection rather more specious than convincing. For was not this 

 the case even in the old world ? Were not stone weapons largely used 

 there contemporaneously with copper or iron implements? No, answers 

 the antiquarian ; each epoch or age was very distinct and strictly 

 consecutive. 



Let us see. 



In Italy, C. Geikie found early uncoined money {ess rude) along with 

 polished stone weapons; and a number of flint knives have been obtained 

 from Etruscan graves. Indeed a piece of coined copper money marking 



* Rapport succinct sur la Geologic des vaUees tie t Athabaskaw— Mackenzie et de F Andeison ; 

 Paris, A. Ilennuyer, 1875. 



