320 Use of Copper by the American Aborigines. 
used to disengage the rock. Here, too, were found various rude 
river. Fragments of rock, ete., thrown out of the excavation, 
are piled up along“its sides, the whole covered with soil, and 
overgrown with bushes and trees. On removing the accumula- 
tions from the excavation, stone axes of large size, made of green- 
stone, and shaped to receive withe handles, are found. Some 
large round green-stone masses, that had apparently been used for 
sledges, were also found. ‘They had round holes bored in them 
to the depth of several inches, which seem to have been designed 
for wooden plugs, to which withe handles might be attached, so 
that several men could swing them with sufficient force to break 
the rock and the projecting masses of copper. Some of them 
probable suggestion, that the various excavations which have 
been discovered are due to the French, (who, it is well known, 
* Since the above was written, the subjoined additional facts have been published 
1 newspaper, of the date of September 25, 1850: 
“ We have been shown by Charles Whittlesey, Esq., of the Ontonagon Mine, @ 
copper arrow-head, and a piece of human skull and other bones, which have lately 
‘oun 
head is now about two inches in length, and seems to have had originally a socket, 
though but part of i+ remains, Several chisels, or instruments resembling chisels, 
having sockets like the common carpenter’s chisel, and small gads or wedges, have 
also been found at the Minnesota Mine. eee 4 
“But the greatest curiosity we have seen in the way of these articles Is @ stick 
of oak timber lately taken out of one of the ancient ‘pits, or shafts, at the Minn 
sota Mine, twenty-seven feet below the surface. is a small tree, about ten feet 1D 
length, and eight or ten inches in diameter, having. short limbs two feet apart,, 
y right angles with one another; and on this account, and from its. sta | 
nearly upright, it is suppos to have been used as a ladder by the ancient miners. a 
“In this shaft, and around and over this stick, were rocks and earth, and large trees 
were ing over it. Many centuries must have elapsed since that ancient os. 
Te | to Oo 
jee +, See 
a Paw es, 
Pt hate 
