136 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Aris, and Letters. 



able copper chips that were strewn on every side additional evi- 

 dence that these ancient men know nothing about casting in 

 copper? Those fragments would have been the most suitable to 

 melt, as in all metals the smaller the fragments the more easily 

 they melt. It is evident that those chips, being too small to 

 make any form of their implements, were abandoned as useless. 



Finally, How were they made if not cast? I believe that I 

 have the key, and can fabricate any form of these ancient imple- 

 ments so exactly as to deceive even my learned friend, Dr. Butler.* 

 These ancient Indians, for I believe they were Indians, used fire 

 in their raining operations. The vein-rock was made hot by 

 building a fire on or against it; then, by dashing on water, the 

 rock would not only be fractured, but the exposed pieces of copper 

 be softened, so that it could be beaten into shape. Then the metal 

 became hard, in consequence of its being pounded ; it was again 

 heated and plunged into cold water ; for copper is, in this respect, 

 the opposite of steel ; the one is softened, while the other is render- 

 ed hard. In this way copper was fashioned simply by pounding. 



In addition to the hammering process, cylindrical articles were 

 evidently rolled between two flat rocks, which is the manner in 

 which several of the articles in the historical collection might be 

 made. Some of those implements that have been supposed to be 

 cast, were, I think, swedged ; that is, a matrix was excavated in 

 stone, into which the rudely fashioned copper was placed, and 

 then by repeated blows the article would be made to assume the 

 exact shape of the mould. Kearly all those plano-convex arti- 

 cles could be made in this manner. Of twenty axes taken from 

 mounds near Davenport nearly three-fourths were of this pattern. 

 I will repeat a few lines of an interesting paper read at the De 

 troit meeting of the American Association, by E. H. Farquharson, 

 on "Eecent Explorations of Mounds near Davenport, Iowa." 



" The Davenport collection of copper implements consists, at 

 present, of twenty axes, six of which were more or less covered 

 with cloth, four copper awls or borers, over one hundred beads, 

 and a curiously spoon-shaped implement. The axes are all of 

 two forms, one plano-convex, the other with flat sides. They are 



*Dr. Butler, who was preeent, has held strongly for the casting of these copper tools.— Ed 



