THOMAS.) INDIAN MOUND-BUILDERS. 711 



they arc obtained t'loni nioinicls also; for exainpli', one of the eiglit 

 found in the. large mound in Kanawha valley, near Charleston, West 

 Virginia, was of this type. A Lraeelet of the same tyiK', now in the 

 T'eabody Museum, was found in one of the mounds of Little Miami 

 valley. 



Cylinders and cylindricall)eads made from sheet eopper have also fre- 

 quently been found in mounds and graves. See, for example, the one from 

 a North Carolina mound shown in Fig. 20!). One obtained from an In- 

 dian grave near Newport, IJhode Island, is ligured by Dr. Ran; ' others, 

 of various sizes, and also conical ear-bobs of sheet copper were found 

 in the North Carolina mounds. The copper bands figured by I'rof. 

 Putnam in tlie Fifteenth Report of tlie I'eabody Museum, as obtained 

 from the Ohio mounds, appear to be of the same character. Speaking 

 of the implement figured on page 01, Tenth Report Peabody Museum, 

 Prof. Andrews, who unearthed it from a miniud in Perry county, Ohio, 

 remarks as follows : "It was made from a single piece of copper, the 

 outline of which is indicated in the figure. The copper was hammered 

 out into so smooth and even a sheet tliat no traces of the hammer are 

 visible. It would be taken indeed for rolled sheet copper." And yet 

 the professor, who has given us one of the best descriptions of Ohio 

 mounds publislied, seems, by his remarks on the preceding page, to 

 discredit bis own eyes. 



As a reference to all the articles made of sheet copper found in 

 mounds and graves woirld be a tedious recital, and would require a 

 l)ersonal insi)ection of all mentioned in order to determine the classes 

 to which they severally belong, it must suHice to repeat what has been 

 stated, that, as a general rule, the distinctive characteristics which 

 determine the class to wliicth they belong may be readily seen. 



As a matter of course no one denies that the mound-builders made 

 implements and ornaments of native copijer, and frequently hammered 

 this copper into thin sheets with the rude implements of which they were 

 possessed. What is here alfirmed, and what, it is believed, can be suc- 

 cessfully niaintained by reference to and ins])ection of tlie articles, is, 

 that many of tliem, found in mounds as well as ancient grav(!s, have 

 been made from sheets of coi)i)er so uniform and even as to forbid the 

 belief that they were hammered out with the rude inqilements pos- 

 sessed by the mound-builders of pre-< Columbian times. A careful 

 chemical and microscopical examination of the various specimens might 

 ])Ossibly settle the i)oint; however, as this lias not been done, we must 

 for the present rely upon inspection. 



The amount of copper traded and given to tlie Indians along the 

 Atlantic coast was much greater than anyone W(mld imagine who has 

 not taken the trouble to look into the matter. It is necessary to refer 

 to the accounts of early voyages and to the early histories to prove 

 the truth of this statement. On almost every page of Smith's History 



' Sinitlisninaii .Vrt'lieol(j;.;ical Cidl.. p. lU.Fii; 



