APPENDIX. 367 



with more precision, or to pursue them into the Canadas, where 

 they are also very extensive. It will sufficiently appear, from 

 this outline, that the discoveries of copper on the south shore of 

 Lake Superior are upon their lands. That some of these dis- 

 coveries have been made upon, or will be traced to, the posses- 

 sions of the North Monomonees, is also probable. 



With respect to the practicability of extinguishing the Indian 

 title, no difficulty is to be apprehended. Living in small villages, 

 or tribes of the same mark, scattered over an immense territory, 

 and often reduced to great poverty by the failure of game and 

 fish, it is presumed there would be a disposition among their chiefs 

 and head men to dispose of portions of it. Those districts which 

 most abound in minerals, presenting a rough and rocky surface, 

 are the least valuable to them as hunting-grounds ; and the goods 

 and annuities which they would receive in exchange must be 

 vastly more important to them than any game which these mineral 

 lands now afford. 



3. " The prohahle advantage which may result to the Republic from 

 the acquisition and ivorking of these m-ines^ How far metallic 

 mines, situated upon the public domain, may be considered as a 

 source of national wealth, and what system of management is best 

 calculated to produce the greatest advantages to the public reve- 

 nue, are inquiries which are not conceived to be presented for 

 consideration in this place ; nor should I presume to offer any 

 speculations upon topics which have been so often discussed, and 

 so fully settled. In applying axioms, however, to a species of 

 productive industry, the results of which are so very various 

 under various situations, great caution is undoubtedly necessary ; 

 and it must appear manifest, on the slightest reflection, how much 

 the comparative value of metallic mines, equally fertile and pro- 

 ductive, ever depends upon situation and local advantages. Dis- 

 missing, therefore, all questions of abstract policy, I shall here 

 adduce a few facts in relation to the fertility of these mineral ,/ 

 beds, and their position with respect to a market — points upon 

 which their value to the nation must ultimately turn. 



That copper is abundantly found on the south shore of Lake ^ 

 Superior has been shown. It is unnecessary here to add to, or 

 repeat the instances of its occurrence, or to urge, from an inspec- 

 tion of the surface, the fertility of subterranean beds. All the 



