103 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts mid Letters. 



logs laid up in the form of the body of a small log house. I 

 had a piece of one of these logs which was cut from a black 

 oak tree about six inches in diameter, showing distinctly the 

 marks of a narrow axe, one and three-quarter inches wide, 

 and very sharp. The marks of the instrument by which it 

 was cut off were as plain and as perfect as they were on the 

 log and stump recently cut in the vicinity. 



Directly over the mass and over the timber which sup- 

 ported it, there stood on the rubbish which covered the mass 

 about twelve feet in depth, a hemlock tree that had two 

 hundred and eighty rings. There was a part of a wooden 

 bowl and a wooden paddle taken from this old mine. 



There were a number of wooden paddles found by Doctor 

 Blake, in an old mine, at the Copper Falls mine, all of which 

 were made of white cedar, which is abundant on Lake Su- 

 perior. Most of these paddles were six feet in length, and 

 resembled those used by the Chippewas in size, shape and 

 material. The handles of these paddles used in the old 

 mines were shaved with a knife or some other sharp cutting 

 tool. In these old mines (Copper Falls), there was a skid 

 with marks showing that it was cut with a sharp ax. There 

 was also a bark spout for conveying the water from the lo- 

 cality. There was a birch tree growing over this debris 

 which was two feet in diameter. The only implements 

 found there which are made of copper, found in the rubbish 

 of the old works, at a depth of from five to fifteen feet below 

 the present surface, were one chisel, five inches long and 

 an inch wide, a gad or wedge and one spear head of the or- 

 dinary pattern, four and one-half inches in length, with a 

 socket for a handle." (Annals of Science, edited by Hamil- 

 ton L. Smith, pages 28-30.) 



It was reported by Singaba Worsa (the head Chippewa 

 chief), that when the Chippewas assembled at their coun- 

 cils from many points of the Lake Superior region, they 

 had abundance of copper which led the council to the con- 

 clusion that copper abounded in many locations. In 1826, 

 this intelligent chief piloted the U. S. Indian Commissioner, 

 Gen. McKenny and party, to a celebrated mass of copper 

 which had been long known by the Chippewas. 



