78 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS OF NEW YORK. 



resembling porphyry. It is, nevertheless, worked with mathematical accuracy, 

 and highly polished. The edge is very sharp. It is as fine a specimen of the 

 Indian stone axe as ever fell under my notice. 



Fig. 19 is of a greenish colored slate, and resembles a kind 



of ornamental hatchet, made of delicate material, which is 



-'''^~""- found at the South and West. It was obtained near Spring- 



J port, Cayuga county. For examples of similar articles, the 



I reader is referred to the first volume of the Smithsonian 



Contributions to Knowledge, p. 218. 



One of the most interesting relics which has yet been dis. 



Pjj, ,g covered in the State is an axe of cast copper, of which Fig. 20 



is a reduced engraving. The original is four inches long by 



two and a half broad on the edge, and corresponds in shape with some of those of 



wrought native copper, which have been found in the mounds of Ohio. From the 



granulations of the surface, it appears to have been cast in sand. There is no 



evidence of its having been used for any purpose. Its history, 



____ beyond that it was ploughed up somewhere in the vicinity of 



'jf \ Auburn, Cayuga county, is unknown. No opportunity has yet 



f. \ been aflforded of analyzing any portion, so as to determine 



whether it has an intermixture of other metals. It appears to be 



pure copper. An inspection serves to satisfy the inquirer that it 



is of aboriginal origin ; but the questions when and by whom 



made, are beyond our ability to answer. There is no evidence 



that the mound-builders understood the smelting of metals ; on 



the contrary, there is every reason to believe that they obtained 



their entire supply in a native state, and worked it cold. The 



Portuguese chronicler of Soto's Expedition into Florida, mentions copper 



hatchets, and rather vaguely refers to a "smelting of copper," in a country 



which he did not visit, far to the northward, called "Chisca." 



The Mexicans and Peruvians made hatchets of copper alloyed 



with tin. It would seem that this hatchet was obtained from 



that direction, or made by some Indian artisan after intercourse 



with the whites had instructed him in the art of working metals. 



At present it is prudent to say that the discovery of this relic 



is an anomalous fact, which investigators should only bear in 



mind, without venturing to make it the basis of deductions 



or inferences of any kind. 



Fig. 21 is an example of the iron axe introduced among the 

 Indians by the French. Thousands of these are found in the 

 western counties of the State. 

 Figs. 22, 23, and 24 are selected by the author from the collection of relics 

 made in the progress of these explorations, from their resemblance to relics of 

 common occurrence in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley. Fig. 22 is almost 

 identical in shape and material with some of the articles from the mounds, 

 described on page 237 of the first volume of these Contributions. The same may 



