on the Nortnern Shore of Lake Superior, 8c. 358 
ments, which they carefully preserve without however making 
any use of them. They say that formerly a huge rock of this 
metal was to be seen elevated a considerable height above the 
surface of the water, and as it has now disappeared, they pretend 
that the gods have carried it elsewhere ; but there is great rea- 
son to believe that in process of time thé waves of the lake have 
covered it entirely with sand and slime; and it is certain that in 
several places pretty large quantities of this metal have been dis- 
covered without being obliged to dig very deep. During the 
course of my first voyage to this country, I was acquainted with 
ove of our order (Jesuits) who had been formerly a goldsmith, 
and who while he was at the mission of Sawlé de St. Marie used 
to search for this metal, and made candlesticks, crosses, and 
eensers of it, for this copper is often to be met with almost en- 
tirely pure *.” 
In 1766, Capt. Carver procured several pieces of native cop- 
per upon the shores of Lake Superior, and about the sources of 
the Chippeway and St. Croix rivers, and published an account of 
these discoveries in his book of travels, which has served to give 
notoriety to the existence of that metal in the region alluded to, 
without however furnishing any very precise information as to its 
locality or abundance. He did not, from his own account, tra- 
verse the southern shore of the lake, but states that virgin cop- 
per is found in. great plenty on the Ontonagon or Copper Mine 
river, and about other parts of Lake Superior, and adds—* that 
he observed many of the small islands, particularly those on the 
eastern shores, were covered with copper ore, which appeared 
like beds of copperas (sulphat of iron) of which many tons lay in 
a small space t.”’ 
Five years after Carver’s visit (A.D. 177 1): a considerable body 
of native copper was dug out of the alluvial earth on the banks 
of the Ontonagon river by two adventurers of the name of Henry 
and Bostwick, and, together with a lump of silver ore of eight 
pounds weight of a blue colour and semi-transparent, transported 
‘to Montreal, and from thence shipped to England, where the 
latter was deposited in the British Museum after an analysis of 
~ a portion of it, by which it was determined to contain 60 per 
cent. of silver t. These individuals were connected with a com- 
pany which had been formed in England for the purpose of 
working the copper mines of lake Superior, among whom were 
the Duke of Gloucester, Sir William Johustone, and several other 
gentlemen of rank. They built a small vessel at Point aux Pins, 
six miles above the Sault de St. Marie, to facilitate their opera- 
tions upon the lake, and a considerable sum of money was ex- 
* Charlevoix’s Journal of a Voyage to North America, vol. ii. p. 45. 
+ Carver's Travels, p.67. { Henry's Travels, p. 30, 
Vol, 58, No, 283, Nov, 1821, Yy pended, 
