210 Mr. Schooleraft on the 
mission, as it has not been communicated to the public, 
nothing can with certainty be stated, but from the enquiries 
which “have been instituted during the recent expedition, it 
is rendered probable, that the actual state of our Indian re- 
lations at that period arrested the advance of the co mmis- 
sioners into the regions where the most valuable beds of 
copper were supposed to lie, and that the specimens trans- 
mitted to government were procured through the instru- 
mentality of some friendly Indians employed for that pur- 
Nek are the lights which those who have preceded me 
in this enquiry, have thrown upon the subject, all of which 
jaye operated in producing public belief in the existence 
of extensive copper mines upon lake Superior, while tray- 
ellers have generally argued that the southern shore of the 
lake is most metalliferous, and that the Ontonagon river may 
be considered as the seat of the principal mines. al- 
Jatin in his report on the state of American manufactures in 
1810 countenances the prevalent opinion, while it has been 
in some of our literary journals, and in the nu- 
merous ephemeral publications of the times, until the public 
eg n has been considerably raised in regard to thern. 
these circumstances the recent expedition under 
Gov. Cass, entered the mouth of the Ontonagon river on 
the 27th of June, having coasted along the sou uthern shore 
of the lake from the head of. the river St. Mary, and after 
spending four days upon the banks of that stream in the ex- 
amination of its ea Pee urenved on the first of July 
towards the Fond du Lac. While there, the principal part 
of our force was encamped at the mouth of the river, and 
the. Governor, accompanied only by such persons as were 
necessary in the exploration, proceeded in two light canoes 
to the large mass of copper which has already been descri- 
bed. We found the river, broad, deep, and gentle for a dis- 
ike, it is skirted on either side by a chain of hills ane 
extreme elevation above the bed of the Ontonagon my} be 
cattnted at from three to four hundred feet. “The. 
appear to be composed of a nucleus of granite, rising 
