386 ETHNOLOGY. 



Various arguments have been advanced by Mr. Foster to prove tbnt 

 the "mound-builders" understood the art of fusing copper, and that at 

 least some of their copper tools were made by being cast or molded.* 

 From the method pursued by this people in mining, in which the agency 

 of lire bore so prominent a part, it would seem improbable they could 

 have long remained ignorant of the fusibility of the metal; yet in most 

 cases the evidence appears conclusive that the rudely-fashioned tool 

 was simpl}^ wrought by being beaten into the desired form, often in the 

 roughest manner. It is possible the two classes of to«ls here referred 

 to may mark two distinct eras in the historj^ of this manufacture, and 

 that the molded tool designates an advance from the primitive method 

 of hammering the metal into shape. Some of the copper beads taken 

 from the "mounds" display a wonderful degree of neatness in the 

 manipulation of the metal, the junction of the bead being in many 

 cases almost imperceptible ; yet thfe agency of fire was here evidently 

 not employed. 



As to the time occupied by the operations, and the interval which 

 has elapsed since the suspension of work at the mines, approximate 

 estimates are made from data which are given by me in the paper 

 already quoted from, and to which I must refer the reader for this and 

 other Information. That the latter period maj^^ extend from seven 

 hundred to eight hundred years does not appear to me to be far from 

 the truth. 



The present growth of forest covers, unbroken, the pits, the debris 

 excavated from and surrounding them, and the detritus at the bottom, 

 containing stone, copper, and other implements j all the timber being 

 of the same character as that on the adjacent land. Several gen- 

 erations of trees have probably grown there since the deserti.on of 

 the works. On the debris at the mouth of a jjit an old stump of an oak, 

 (probably Quercus coccinea, Wang.,) which had grown and decayed 

 there, was examined, which, from the calculation made by counting the 

 annual rings, &c., must have reached the age of five hundred and 

 eighty -four years before it ceased to grow. A copper knife and other 

 implements were found beneath this stump. Pines of the present 

 forest {Pinus strobus, L.) have frequently been cut in the pits, which 

 trees the number of the cortical layers make three hundred and eighty 



years old. 



The absence of the bones of man is a remarkable feature. Accepting 

 the identity of the "mound-builders" with the "ancient miners," it 

 may be supposed that, through some superstitious belief, they had the 

 habit of removing their dead to burial-mounds farther south. 



It is evident that such extensive operations as are here described re- 

 quired a system and organization of no mean order for those days. 

 Besides the animal food afforded by the land and the water of the sur- 

 rounding region, it is likely that, as the Mound-builders were essentially 

 * Phieistoric Eaces of the United Slates of America: Chicago, 1873, p. 259. 



