THE BRONZE AXE. 217 



in various parts of the world, both in Asia and America. 

 According to Mr. John Evans, the most learned historian 

 of the Bronze Age, the greatest copper ' find ' of the 

 eastern hemisphere was that at Gungeria, in Central 

 India ; and the copper implements there found consisted 

 entirely of flat celts of a very early and almost primitive 

 pattern. 



The copper weapons of America, however, have greater 

 illustrative and ethnological interest, because the noble 

 red man, at the period when Columbus first discovered 

 him, and when he first discovered Columbus, was still in 

 the Stone Age of his very imperfect culture, or, to speak 

 more correctly, of extreme barbarism. The fact is, the 

 Indians of Lake Superior were only just beginning to 

 employ copper, and were on the eve of independently 

 inaugurating a Bronze Age of their own, when the 

 intrusive white man came and spoiled the fun by the 

 incontinent introduction of iron, firearms, missionaries, 

 whisky, and all the other resources of civilization. On 

 the shores of Lake Superior native copper exists in 

 abundance ; and the intelligent Bed Indian, finding this 

 handsome red stone in the cliffs by his side, was pretty 

 sure to try his hand at chipping a tomahawk out of the 

 rare material. But, as soon as he did so, Mr. Evans 

 suggests, he would find to his surprise that it yielded to 

 his blows ; in short, that he had got that singular 

 phenomenon, a malleable stone, to deal with. Hammer- 

 ing away at his new invention, he must shortly have 

 hammered it into a shapely axe. The new process took 

 his practical fancy at once : vistas of an untold wealth 

 pf scalps floated gaily before his fevered brain ; and he 



