CHAPTER VI. 



ANCIENT WORKS AND ANCIENT MINING, AT LAKE SUPERIOR 

 AND MISCELLANEOUS LOCALITIES. 



In the geological report of Messrs. Foster and Whitney, made to Congress in 

 1850, we have some details of discoveries of traces of ancient mining in the copper 

 district south of Lake Superior, and also on Isle Royale. They " consist of nume- 

 rous excavations in the solid rock ; heaps of rubble and earth along the courses of 

 the veins ; the remains of copper utensils, fashioned into the form of knives and 

 chisels ; stone hammers, some of which are of immense size and weight ; wooden 

 bowls for bailing water from the mines ; and numerous levers of wood used in rais- 

 ing the masses of copper to the surface." 



Traces of mounds, constructed in the form of mathematical figures, were observed. 

 One on the northeast quarter of section sixteen, township fifty, range thirty-nine, 

 near a small stream, is about ten feet high, in the form of a square, flat on the top, 

 the sides of which are fifteen feet in length. The slopes are regular from the top 

 to the base. 



From this description, and the drawing accompanying it (Fig. 30), this tumulus 

 appears to be a regular pyramidal structure, like those within the walls of Aztalan, 

 the temple-mounds so often found in the Southern States, and the teocalli of Mexico. 

 We might draw the conclusion that people having the same form of worship were 

 spread over this whole extent of country, and that those who had gone to the 

 remote regions of Lake Superior had so much respect for their religion as to erect 

 a small altar or temple-mound, to answer their temporary purposes while engaged 

 in the duty of supplying the nation with copper. 



The stone hammers (Fig. 31), observed in great abundance about these mines. 



Temple Mounrl, L. Superior. 



Stone Hammer of Ancient Miners 



Stone Axe, L. Superior. 



show that the process of cutting the masses of native copper was practised then as 

 it is now, only with tools of different materials. These seem to have been manu- 



