APPENDIX. 293 



So obvious a change iu the geological character of the rock 

 strata, in passing from Lake Huron to Lake Superior, prepares 

 the observer to expect a corresponding one in the imbedded 

 minerals and other natural features — an expectation which is 

 realized during the first eighty leagues, in the discovery of vari- 

 ous minerals. The first appearances of copper are seen at Ke- 

 Vi^eena Point, two hundred and seventy miles beyond the Sault de 

 Ste. Marie, where the debris and pebbles along the shore of the 

 lake contain native copper disseminated in particles varying in size 

 from a grain of sand to a mass of two pounds' weight. Many of 

 the detached stones of this Point are also colored green by the 

 carbonate of copper, and the rock strata exhibit traces of the 

 same ore. These indications continue to the River Ontonagon, 

 which has long been noted for the large masses of native copper 

 found upon its banks, and about the contiguous country. 



This river is one of the largest of thirty tributaries, mostly 

 small, which flow into the lake between Point Iroquois and Fond 

 du Lac. It originates in a district of mountainous country inter- 

 mediate between the Mississippi River and lakes Huron and 

 Superior. After running in a northern direction for about one 

 hundred and twenty miles, it enters the latter at the computed 

 distance of fifty miles west of the portage of Keweena, in north 

 latitude 46° 52' 2", according to the observations of Capt. Dou- 

 glass. It is connected, by portages, with the Monomonee River 

 of Green Bay, and with the Chippewa River of the Mississippi- 

 At its mouth there is a village of Chippewa Indians of sixteen 

 families, who subsist chiefly on the fish taken in the river. Their 

 location, independent of that circumstance, does not appear to 

 unite the ordinary advantages of an Indian village of the region. 



A strip of alluvial land of a sandy character extends from the 

 lake up the river three or four leagues, where it is succeeded by 

 hills of a broken, sterile aspect, covered, chiefly, with a growth 

 of pine, hemlock, and spruce. Among these hills, which may be 

 considered as lateral spurs of the Porcupine Mountains, the cop- 

 per mines, so called, are situated, at the computed distance of 

 thirty-two miles from the lake, and in the centre of a region cha- 

 racterized by its wild, rugged, and forbidding appearance. The 

 large mass of native copper lies on the west bank of the river, 

 at the water's edge, at the foot of an elevated bank, part of which 



