APPENDIX. 295 



Several other large masses of native copper have been found, 

 either on this river or within the basin of the lake, at various 

 periods since the country has been known, and taken into different 

 parts of the United States and of Europe. A recent analysis of 

 one of these specimens, at the University of Leyden, proves it to 

 be native copper in a state of uncommon purity, and uncombined 

 with any notable portion of either gold or silver. 



A mass of copper, weighing twenty-eight pounds, was dis- 

 covered on an island in Lake Superior, eighty miles west of the 

 Ontonagon. It was taken to Michilimackinac and disposed of. 

 The War Department was formerly supplied with a specimen 

 from this mass, and the analysis above alluded to is also under- 

 stood to have been made from a portion of it. A piece weighing 

 twelve pounds was found at Winnebago Lake. Other discoveries 

 of this metal have been made, within the region, at various times 

 and places. 



The existence of copper in the region of Lake Superior appears 

 to have been known to the earliest travellers and voyagers. 



As early as 1689, the Baron La Hontan, in concluding a de- 

 scription of Lake Superior, adds: "That, upon it, we also find 

 copper mines, the metal of which is so fine and plentiful that 

 there is not a seventh part lost from the ore." — Neiu Voyages to 

 North America^ London, 1703. 



In 1721, Charlevoix passed through the lakes on his way to 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and did not allow the mineralogy of the 

 country to escape him. 



" Large pieces of copper are found in some places on its banks 

 [Lake Superior], and around some of the islands, which are still 

 the objects of a superstitious worship among the Indians. They 

 look upon them with veneration, as if they were the presents of 

 those gods who dwell under the waters. They collect their 

 smallest fragments, which they carefully preserve, without, how- 

 ever, 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 reason to believe that, in process of time, the 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 



