98 



were eight feet longj and bore the visible 

 marks of the European axe^ a proof that this 

 wood must have become petrified since the 

 arrival of the Spaniards.* Of all kinds of wood 



* Tliat the marks in tliis wood were produced by an axe, 

 or some tool of a similar kind, I am not disposed to question ; 

 but tliat it must have been an European axe, will fairly admit 

 of doubt. The Mexicans, on the arrival of the Spaniards, 

 made use of axes or hatchets of copper, and, as we are assured 

 by some res[)ectable authors, possessed the art of tempering 

 that jnctal for tools in a manner entirely unknown to the Eu- 

 ropeans ; and that this secret was known to the ancient Chilians 

 IS by no means improbable, considering their contiguity and 

 intercourse with the Peruvians, a people whose progress in the 

 arts was not inferior to that of the Mexicans. As the period 

 when this timber was cut is however wholly conjectural^ it 

 may perhaps be referred to an earlier date than any autheh- 

 ticaled or even traditionary accounts of the country ; to an 

 era when the use of iron was very possibly known, perhaps 

 anterior to the deluge, when llie face of the globe exhibited 

 far different aspects and relations than at present. That thii 

 hypothesis is not wholly destitute of verisimilitude, the follow- 

 ing may serve to show : One of the numbers of the Richmond 

 Enrjuircr, for tlie present yeur, 1807, in giving an acc.junt of 

 the antiquities of the interior of America, observes, that, " a 

 copper mine was oj)cncd some years since further down the 

 jMississipj)i (below the falls of St. Anthony) when, to the great 

 surpiise of the labourers, a largi; collection of mining tools 

 were found scxeial fathoms below the surface;" and the 

 writtr of this not;; has been inlormecl, from respectable au- 

 tliorilv, ilr.it witiiin a slioit time since, in the state of Ken- 

 furl- v, sonic li'.bonrers, in digging a well, discovered, at the 

 (hplli of one iuaidred feet from the surface, the stump of a 



