268 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



follows, "Beck's Gazetteer" (page 308) states that "a mound of the largest di- 

 mensions has been thrown up, within a few years, in Illinois, over the remains of 

 an eminent chief," When a writer gives the name of a book and the number of 

 the page, and uses inverted commas, it is generally supposed that within those 

 quotation marks he uses the exact language of his authority ; how Prof. Winchell 

 has followed this rule is best exemplified by giving the correct quotation, which 

 reads thus: " Beck's Gazetteer," (page 308), — "One of the largest mounds in 

 this country has been thrown up on this stream, within the last thirty or forty 

 years, by the Osages, near the great Osage village, in honor of one of their de- 

 ceased chiefs." The stream referred to by Beck is the Osage River, which is 

 n Missouri, not in Illinois. Beck says it was erected thirty or forty years ago, 

 and as his " Gazetteer " was published fifty-nine years ago, this would make the 

 age of the mound nearly a century, instead of a few years. The Quotation as 

 made by Prof. Winchell is therefore totally at variance with the book quoted. 

 Even if it had been correct, Beck is known to be very unreliable as an authority, 

 which is proved in this instance by the fact that in the hope of finding " one of 

 the largest mounds in this country " as described by him ; Mr, O, W. CoUett, of 

 the Missouri Historical Society, some time since, thoroughly searched the banks 

 of the Osage River for m^iles, in the neighborhood designated by Beck, without 

 being able to find the sHghtest evidence that any such mound ever existed. 



Prof. Winchell devotes considerable space to prove that the Indian tribes, 

 at the time of their first contact with white men, made use of copper, a fact which 

 no one has denied, and makes a number of quotations and references, as he says, 

 "in regard to the use of copper and the mining of it by American aborigines," 

 I have read the quotations carefully, but without finding a word in any of them 

 respecting mining. 



Again at page 614, he says, " Thus at a distance of from 800 to 1,000 miles 

 from its origin, Cartier in 1555, and Champlain in 1610, encountered Indians 

 who informed them of the manner of mining and of manufacturing copper imple- 

 ments." Neither Cartier or Champlain, in their narratives say anything about 

 "the manner of mining," on the contrary they say the Indians told them they 

 gathered the copper in lumps. 



Col. Whittlesey says,® " Detached and water-worn lumps of copper have 

 been found in great numbers in the gravel, clay, and loose materials that cover 

 the rocks, from the days of the Catholic fathers to this time, not only in the min- 

 eral regions but over a large space, to the southward of it." Pieces of^ drift 

 copper have been found in many places in Wisconsin, and one weighing five or 

 six pounds is recorded as having been found in the drift gravel in Medina Coun- 

 ty, Ohio. It was from such sources that the modern Indian tribes obtained their 

 supplies of copper, there is not a particle of evidence to connect them with the 

 ancient mining operations, or to prove that they had any knowledge or tradition 

 concerning them. Col. Whittlesey states that all the evidences prove that the 



Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior, page 1. 



