XII 



THE MINERAL DEPTHS 



AGES before the dawn of civilization, primitive 

 man had learned to extract certain ores and 

 metals from the earth by subterranean min- 

 ing. Such nations as the Egyptians, for example, un- 

 derstood mining in most of its phases, and worked 

 their mines in practically the same manner as all suc- 

 ceeding nations before the time of the introduction 

 of the steam engine. The early Britons were good 

 miners and the products of their mines were carried 

 to the Orient by the Phoenicians many centuries before 

 the Christian era. The Romans were, of course, 

 great miners, and remains of the Roman mines are 

 still in existence, particularly good examples being 

 found in Spain. 



Even the aborigines of North America possessed 

 some knowledge of mining, as attested by the ancient 

 copper mines in the Lake Superior region, although 

 by the time of the discovery of America, and prob- 

 ably many centuries before, the interloping races of 

 Indians who had driven out or exterminated the Lake 

 Superior copper mines had forgotten the art of mining, 

 if indeed they had ever learned it. But the fact that 

 their predecessors had worked the copper mines is 

 shown by the number of stone mining implements 

 found in the ancient excavations about Lake Superior, 



[242] 



