10 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
The savages respect this lake as a divinity, and sacrifice to 
it... They often find at the bottom of the water, pieces of 
pure copper, weighing from 10 to 20 pounds. I have seen these 
many times in the hands of the savages, and as they are super- 
stitious, they regard them as so many divinities, or as presents 
that the gods who are at the bottom of the water have made 
them to be the cause of their good fortune; it is for this that they 
keep these pieces of copper wrapped up among their most 
precious movables; there are some who have preserved them 
more than 50 years; others have had them in their families from 
time immemorial, and cherish them as household gods.. 
The truth seems to be that the interior aborigines had ceased 
to use native copper implements more than 300 years ago, some 
resuming their use at a much later day.. Where native copper 
was known it had become almost sacred, not to be used in com- 
mon ways. Farther east it was little known, occurring on no 
village sites in New York, and rarely in camps. ~ : 
The missionary did not then see the great copper rock project- 
ing from the water, of which he had been told, but later travelers 
did. He recorded the fact that passers-by cut pieces from this. 
This is described in the Relation of 1670. ‘“ Advancing to the 
end of the lake, and returning a day’s journey along the southern 
side, one sees at the water’s edge a rock of copper which weighs 
at least seven or eight hundred pounds, so hard that steel will 
scarcely penetrate it. When however it-is heated, it is cut like 
lead.” 
There are many other mentions of plates and masses of copper 
seen, but these need not be quoted here. One other quotation 
will be made to show the sacred character that it had gained, 
after having had common uses: This is from the same Relation: 
At that time the savages told a story of a floating island which 
approached or receded with the wind. Four men reached this 
one day and prepared their dinner in their usual way. Heating 
the stones they found and casting them into the water to make 
it boil, they discovered that they were copper and that this lay 
plentifully around. After eating they loaded their canoe with 
pieces and plates of the metal and were soon homeward bound. — 
They had not gone far when a great voice called to them, asking 
why they carried off the cradles and the diversions of his children. 
“The plates of copper are the cradles, because among the savages 
they are made of only one or two boards joined together, on 
