210 Mr, Schoolcraft on the 



mission, as it has not been communicated to the public, 

 nothing can with certainty be stated, but from the enquiries 

 which have been instituted during the recent expedition, it 

 is rendered probable, that the actual state of our Indian re- 

 lations at that period arrested the advance of the commis- 

 sioners into the regions where the most valuable beds of 

 copper were supposed to lie, and that the specimens trans- 

 mitted to government were procured through the instru- 

 mentality of some friendly Indians employed for that pur- 

 pose. 



Such are the lights which those who have preceded me 

 in this enquiry, have thrown upon the subject, all of which 

 have operated in producing pubHc belief in the existence 

 of extensive copper mines upon lake Superior, while trav- 

 ellers have generally argued that the southern shore of the 

 lake is most metaUiferous, and that the Ontonagon river may 

 be considered as the seat of the principal mines. Mr. Gal- 

 latin in his report on the state of American manufactures in 

 1810 countenances the prevalent opinion, while it has been 

 reiterated in some of our literary journals, and in the nu- 

 merous ephemeral publications of the times, until the pubhc 

 expectation has been considerably raised in regard to them. 



Under these circumstances the recent expedition under 

 Gov. Cass, entered the mouth of the Ontonagon river on 

 the 27th of June, having coasted along the southern shore 

 of the lake from the head of the river St. Mary, and after 

 spending four days upon the banks of that stream in the ex- 

 amination of its mineralogy, proceeded on the first of July 

 towards the Fond du Lac. While there, the principal part 

 of our force was encamped at the mouth of the river, and 

 the Governor, accompanied only by such persons as were 

 necessary in the exploration, proceeded in two light canoes 

 to the large mass of copper which has already been descri- 

 bed. We found the river, broad, deep, and gentle for a dis- 

 tance, and serpentine in its course, — then becoming nar- 

 rower, with an increased velocity of current, and before 

 reaching the copper rock, full of rapids and difficult of as- 

 cent. At the distance of three or four leagues from the 

 lake, it is skirted on either side by a chain of hills whose 

 extreme elevation above the bed of the Ontonagon may be 

 estimated at from three to four hundred feet. These hills 

 appear to be composed of a nucleus of granite^ rising 



