SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 197 



Superior clown the valley of the MississipjDi, have IjcGti 

 scattered by the same cause which dispersed the boulders 

 of sienitic rock. Whether the native copper found to the 

 north-west on Copper Mine river comes from the same 

 place, is a subject upon which we have no data, and there- 

 fore can form no opinion. Perhaps, as Mr. Schoolcraft 

 suggests, the Porcupine Mountains, if well explored, would 

 be found to contain copper ores. We do not at present re- 

 collect any places where the pyrites or any other ore of 

 copper has been found in any quantity on Lake Superior. 

 Mr. Schoolcraft, it is true, handed to one of our party 

 some fragments of ores of copper, brought to him in 1823 

 by an Indian, who said he had found them on Kewecna or 

 Kewewenon point, on the south shore of the lake. Upon 

 the vague reports of an Indian we shall build no theory ; 

 the question which appears to us of far greater importance 

 is not where the copper lies, but what shall we do with it 

 if it should be found. We are very doubtful whether any 

 other advantage would result from it, at least for a century 

 to come, than the mere addition in books of science of a 

 new^ locality of this metal. It does not appear to us, that 

 in the present state of that section of our country, and with 

 the unpromising prospects which it now offers, these mines 

 could be worked for a great length of time. Copper, we 

 know, exists in many other parts of our extensive coun- 

 try, and much nearer to the centres of civilization and po- 

 pulation. Instead, therefore, of wasting our endeavours and 

 resources, in a futile attempt to discover mines in so re- 

 mote and dreary a country, let us apply them to the in- 

 vestigation of those sections, where mines could, if found, 

 be turned to immediate advantage. Had the French, who 

 first overran our country, considered this point, and in- 

 stead of wasting their resources in idle searches, instead of 

 Vol. II. 26 



