86 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



quainted with its rich deposits of copper ore. More than one 

 of the pubHshed descriptions mention it, and it is stated by 

 Charlevoix tliat such was the purity of the ore that one of the 

 monks who was there, and w^ho had been bred to the business 

 of a goldsmith, made from it some sacramental articles 



" The savages," says Charlevoix, " on account of tlie quan- 

 tity of fish furnished by Lake Superior, and of the respect 

 inspired by its vast extent, have made it a sort of divinity, 

 and offer to it sacrifices in their manner." He thinks, never- 

 theless, it is rather to the genius of the lake than to the lake 

 itself that they address their prayers. " If one may believe 

 them," says he, " the origin of the lake has something divine 

 in it. It w^as formed, they imagine, by Michabou, the god 

 of waters, in order to supply them with beaver. In the strait 

 by which it is discharged into Huron, there is a rapid, caus- 

 ed," he says, "by great rocks, called Sault St. Marie. These 

 rocks, according to the Indians, are the remains of a cause- 

 way which God had built to hold the waters of the river and 

 those of Lake Alimepegon, which filled this great lake." 



*' In places on its borders, and about some of its islands," 

 says the waiter above-named, "we found large pieces of 

 copper, which are yet the object of the superstitious adoration 

 of the savages. They regard them with veneration as a 

 present from the gods who inhabit the waters. They collect 

 the smallest fragments of it, and preserve them with care, but 

 make no use of them. They say that formerly they have 

 seen a large rock, all of the same mineral, raised much above 

 the water ; and, as it is not now to be seen, they say that the 

 gods have removed it somewhere else. But there is reason 

 to suppose that in the lapse of time the waves of the lake 

 have covered it with sand and ooze : and it is certain that we 

 discovered in many places a large quantity of this metal 

 •without even being obliged to dig much. On my first voyage 



