1853.] 



THE ANCIENT MINERS OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 



Tbe cuts on tlie piece I now have are made with a duller 

 tool, and appareiitly, having a curved edge like an adze. An 

 axe or adze, of that kind, has been found in one of the mounds 

 in Ross county, Ohio, It is figured and described by Mr. 

 Squier, and also two other kinds of axes, and the mode of fasten- 

 ing a handle or helve to them, on pages 197-8-9 of the " Con- 

 tributions." As yet no such axes ha\'e been found on Lake 

 Supeiior. The only implements found there, which are made of 

 copper, and which are from the rubbish of the old works at a depth 

 of five to fifteen feet below the present surface, are figured below. 



One is a chisel, an inch wide, with a bevel edge and a sockst 

 to receive a wooden handle, and is five inches long. Another is 

 a "gad," or wedge, such as quarry men now use, and 

 is four inches long, both of which are figui-ed and 

 desci'ibed in the report of the Geologists, for the 

 year 1850, and are from the Minnesotah ancient 

 workino-s. 



The third is a spear-head, in the possession of 

 S. W. Hill, Esquire, of the Copper Falls mine, lij!, 

 four and a half inches in length, which had the k 

 remains of a handle in it when found. It is repre- J\ '/( 

 sen ted below, the section through the line a J is <z^l!!U 

 shown at 1, and the section across the shank c d, is shown at 2. 



it had not rotted from exposure to the atmosphere, having been 

 always covered by water. The timber was of a dark color, and 

 shrank very much on drying; but the marks of the instrument 

 by which it was cut off, were as plain and as perfect as they 

 were on the logs and stumps reeontly cut in the vicinity. Di- 

 rectly o\er the mass, and o\or the timber which supported it, 

 theie stood, on tiie rubbish that covered tlie mass, about 12 feet 

 in depth, a hemlock tree, that had recently been cut down, on 

 the stump of which I counted (290j two hundred and ninety 

 annual rings, or layers of growth. Other older and larger trees 

 had conic to maturity, fallen, and rotted away on the same 

 ground. 



I have another piece of timber which I take to be white 

 cedai-, that I procured from an extensive ancient rock excavation 

 iu the side of a mountain, forming an aitificial cave, about four 

 ^4) miles south-east of Eagle Harbor, on section 17, T. 58, N.R., 

 30 west. It was presented to me by Dr. Blake, the 

 Agent of the Company, who was engaged in re- 

 opening the mine, and who found among the rub- 

 bish, a wooden shovel, a part of a wooden bowl, that 

 had been used to bail water, and troughs of cedar 

 bark for carrying off the water. 



This shrunken and withered wooden "bat" or 

 shovel, is more decayed than most of those found by 

 Dr. Blake, because it was a part of the time out of 

 water. Some othei:s that I saw were less rotten, in 

 fact, were merely water soaked, and showed the 

 marks of the knife or other shaving tool by which 

 the handle was fiishioned. They generally resemble 

 an Indian paddle, in size and form, but some of 

 them are worn unequally as though they were used 

 side wise. The one I have was taken from the 

 loose materials thrown out from the cave so long- 

 since that the trees, of the usual size and kinds, were 

 growing upon the "buri'ow," or spoil bank. A 

 birch about (2,) two feet in diameter, stood imme- 

 diately over this shovel, the lower roots of the tree 

 scarcely reaching to it, through the ancient rubbish. 

 The marginal cut represents in outline, one of these 

 shovels, length three-and-a-half feet, a a, form of one 

 after use, from the Aztec cave, four miles south-east 

 of Eagle Harbor; b b, form of the one I have, show- 

 ing it had been used for scraping sidewise. 



They have been found at the Copper Falls mine, 

 and all of them are made of white cedar, which is 

 abundant on Lake Superior. 



The end of the stick or skid has the ma ks of a 

 tool like a narrow axe, but not as broad or as per- 

 fect as those on the Minnesotah specimen which I was obliged 

 to leave at the Ontonogon River, and which has been lost. The 

 outline cut below i-epresents a copper axe found near ChilHcothe, 



a maul with double grooves, weighing 39^ pounds, it is twelve 

 inches long, five and a half inches wide, and four inches thick. 



These broken and cast-away mauls are seen in great numbers 

 among the rubbish of all the old works, weighing from two to 

 thirty-six pounds. They were handled, in all probability, by put- 

 ting a withe around the middle at the groove. The wall rock that 

 ^^ is left standing on each side of the \-ein appears to have been 



weighing two pounds five ounces, four-tenths of an inch thick, bruised and worn away by incessant pounding witb these mauls, 

 and seven inches long. One from the Copper FaUs mine, broken by use and havmg but 



The "gad" is the only implement of metal, as yet known, 

 which was then used in mining. The rock was excavated prin- 

 cipally by the use of fire, by means of which the mass was 

 softened, and fractured. The main implement made use of to 

 break up the wall rock and \'ein stone, after it was calcined, w.;s 

 a stone maul or " hammer," shown in this cut which represents 



