USE OF COPPER BY THE ABORIGINES. jgS 



copper. Some of them were broken, and some of the projecting ends of rock 

 exhibited marks of having been battered in the manner here suggested." 



The great Ontonagon mass of virgin copper, now deposited at Washington, 

 when found, exhibited marks of having had considerable portions cut from it ; and 

 the ground around it was strewed with fragments of stone axes, which had been 

 broken in endeavors to detach portions of the mass. It is not impossible that this 

 mass was one of those which had been brought to the surface by the ancient 

 miners,* 



The questions naturally arise. By whom Avere these ancient mining operations 

 carried on? and to what era may they be referred? Without noticing the 

 improbable suggestion, that the various excavations which have been discovered 

 are due to the French, (who, it is well known, were early acquainted with the 

 mineral riches of the Northwest,) we may find a satisfactory answer to the first 

 of these questions, if not to the last, in the character of the deposits which recent 

 explorations have disclosed from the mounds of the West. Among the multitude 

 of relics of art found buried upon the ancient altars, or beside the bones of the 

 dead, articles of copper are of common occurrence. It is sometimes found in native 

 masses, but generally worked into articles of use or ornament. I have taken from 

 the mounds axes, well wrought from single pieces, weighing upwards of two pounds 

 each. They are synmietrical, corresponding very nearly in shape with the Mexican 

 and Peruvian axes. Some are double-bladed, others gouge-sliaped, and evidently 

 designed to be used as adzes. Beside these, chisels, graving tools, and a great 

 variety of ornaments, bracelets, gorgets, beads, etc., etc., composed of this metal, 

 have been discovered. Some of the ornaments are covered with silver, beaten to 

 great thinness, and so closely wrapped around the copper that many persons have 

 supposed that the ancient people understood the difficult art of plating. 



Some years ago, a mass of native copper, weighing upwards of twenty pounds, 

 was found upon the banks of the Scioto River, near Chilicothe, in Ohio. Large 

 portions had evidently been cut from it. The discovery of these native masses, not 

 to mention the amount of the manufactured copper, implying a lai'ge original supply, 

 points pretty certainly to the shores of Lake Superior as the locality whence the 



* Since the above was written, the subjoined additional facts have been published in the Lake Superior 

 .Journal newspaper, of the date of September 25, 1850 : 



" We have been shown by Charles Whittlesey, Esq., of the Ontonagon Mine, a copper arrow-head, 

 and a piece of human skujl and other bones, which have lately been found in the ancient Indian excavations 

 on the Ontonagon River, The arrow-head is now about two inches in length, and seems to have had 

 originally a socket, though but part of it remains. Several chisels, or instruments resembUng chisels, 

 having sockets like the common carpenter's chisel, and small gads or wedges, have also been found at the 

 Minnesota Mine. 



" But the greatest curiosity we have seen in the way of these articles is a stick of oak timber lately 

 taken out of one of the ancient 'pits,' or shafts, at the Minnesota Mine, twenty-seven feet below the 

 surface. It is a small tree, about ten feet in length, and eight or ten inches in diameter, having short 

 limbs two feet apart, and at nearly right angles with one another ; and on this account, and from its 

 standing nearly upright, it is supposed to have been used as a ladder by the ancient miners. In this 

 shaft, and around and over this stick, were rocks and earth, and large trees were growing over it, 

 Many centjjries must have elapsed since that ancient ladder was placed there." 

 •24 



