602 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Mexico, for in the graves of Yucatan have been found beads of the Lake Supe- 

 rior chlorastralite." 



Again, at the fourteenth annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Sciences, 

 Prof. Snow, of the State University, gave an account of his own recent "archae- 

 ological explorations in the Pecos Valley, New Mexico." Among other things 

 he said : " On a hill opposite the church they found specimens of pottery of the 

 most ancient type, and also specimens of more recent origin. In one locality 

 they found specimens of slag (the refuse from smelting) and indications of sup- 

 posed mining shafts. The supposition was that these were evidences of mining 

 by the ancient Pueblos." And on page 481 of the Review for December, 1881, 

 I find Columbus Moise, of Las Vegas, New Mexico, making this statement : 

 "The remains o{ furnaces, and such rude means and vessels as the primitive 

 races used in mining, may yet be found scattered about in many places, showing 

 conclusively the existence of mines which paid, even with their rude methods. 

 All implements found are of either stone or copper; the furnaces, of mud and 

 rock." 



Now, all this goes to show that not only the ancient inhabitants of Mexico, 

 as Prof. Putnam admits, but also the Pueblos of New Mexico, melted copper and 

 made implements of it. 



Reply to No. 4. My specimen found in Missouri has the external appear- 

 ance of having been cast. Prof. Putnam admits that copper was anciently cast 

 in Mexico. Later discoveries, as above cited, show that copper casting was also 

 done in furnaces by the ancient Pueblo inhabitants of New Mexico; and if so, 

 is it not at least possible, and reasonably probable, that it was also done in some 

 other places — in Wisconsin, for instance — even though we may not yet have 

 found any all-convincing proofs on the subject. Some intelligent observers think 

 it was. Moreover, my specimen may have come either from the Mexican or 

 the Pueblo artists, instead of from any kind of copper smithery in Wisconsin. 

 But let it be understood that Wisconsin, or the Lake Superior region, is not the 

 only place where copper exists, for the State of Missouri has plenty of it, and in 

 every variety of ore. It has been found in that State in the following counties : 

 Dent, Crawford, Benton, Maries, Greene, Lawrence, Dade, Taney, Dallas, 

 Phelps, Reynolds, and Wright. And in some pat-ts of the State, especially of 

 the Ozark region, remains of very old mining work and furnaces have been 

 found, which some observers suppose to have been pre-historic, although the 

 majority thus far attribute them to the early Spanish adventurers. It is claimed 

 that some of De Soto's army spent the winter of 1541-42 in Vernon county 

 (southwestern part of the State), the chief evidence being that very old, rude 

 smelting works or furnaces have been found there. But it is just possible that 

 these works may have been prehistoric, the same as those of the Pecos Valley 

 and other places in New Mexico. The archaeology of Missouri, like her mineral 

 wealth, is only in the infancy of its development and I quite suspect that pre- 

 historic mining and metallurgy will yet be identified within her borders, in addi- 



