Jsl^ative Copper of Lake Superior, 4'^. 203 



leagues to the west of the Ontonagon river. It is overlay- 

 ed in other parts by a stratum of grey sand-stone, resembling 

 certain varieties of grauwacke, of uncommon thicknessj 

 which appears in various promontories along the shore, and 

 at the distance of ninety miles from Point Iroquois, consti- 

 tutes a lofty perpendicular wall upon the water's edge cal- 

 led the Pictured Rocks^ which is one of the most com- 

 manding objects in nature. So obvious a change in the 

 geological character of the rock strata in passing from lake 

 Huron to lake Superior, prepares us to expect a correspond- 

 ing one, in the imbedded minerals, and other natural associa- 

 dons, — an expectation which is realized during the first 

 eighty leagues, in the discovery of red hematite, prehnite, 

 opal, jasper, sardonyx, carnelion, agate, and zeolite. 



The first appearances of copper are seen on the head of 

 the portage across Keweena point, two hundred and seventy 

 miles beyond the Sault de St. Marie, %vhere the pebbles 

 along the shore of the lake contain native copper dissemi- 

 nated in particles varying in size from a grain of sand to a 

 lump of two pounds weight. Many of the detached stones 

 at this place are also coloured green by the carbonate of 

 copper, and the rock strata in the vicinity exhibit traces of 

 the same ore. These indications continue to the river On- 

 tonagon, which has long been noted for the large masses of 

 native copper found upon its banks, and about the contigu- 

 ous country. This river (called Donagon on Mellisli's Map) 

 is one of the largest of thirty tributaries which flow into the 

 lake between Point Iroquois and the Fond du Lac. It orig- 

 inates in a district of mountainous country intermediate be- 

 tween the Mississippi river and the lakes Huron and Superi- 

 or, and after running in a northern direction for one hun- 

 dred and twenty miles, enters the latter at the distance of 

 fifty one miles west of Point Keweena, in north latitude 46° 

 52,' 2" according to the observations of Capt. Douglass. It 

 is connected by portages with the Menomonie river of 

 Oreen Bay, and with the Chippeway river of the Mississip- 

 pi, routes of communication occasionally travelled by the 

 Indians in canoes. At its mouth there is a village of Chip- 

 peway Indians of sixteen families who subsist chiefly on the 

 fish (sturgeon) taken in the river ; and whose location, in- 

 dependently of that circumstance, does not appear to unite 

 the <?rdinary advantages o'i Indiaa villages in that region 



