24 . NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
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. 
Mr Squier was one of the most accurate and judicious of — 
writers and these words may have held in check the extraya- 
gant surmises and theories in which some of his contemporaries — 
indulged. At the same time some of our best authorities have 
determined that many articles which appear to have been cast 
were really brought into shape by hammering. The first im- — 
pressions are of a rude casting. 
Dr Charles Rau at first allowed the casting of this article.— 
Rau, p. 92. In collecting his papers in 1882 he made a pref- 
atory note as follows: 
Reference is made to a cast copper ax plowed up near Auburn, 
Cayuga co. N. Y. and first described and figured by Mr Squier 
on p. 78 of his Aboriginal monuments of the state of New York — 
(Wash. 1849). Several years ago, while in conversation with 
Mr Squier at his residence in New York I happened to see the 
Same ax lying on the mantelpiece. In handling the object I 
noticed that a small portion had been removed from it—for 
close examination by an expert, as Mr Squier informed me. 
This examination resulted in the discovery that the ax was 
not cast but hammered into shape from native copper. The 
former inhabitants of North America, I still believe—notwith- 
standing all assertions to the contrary—-were unacquainted with 
the art of melting copper.—Rau, pref. p. vii 
As to modes of working copper and the differences between 
the native metal and that brought by Europeans, reference may 
be made to a valuable paper by Mr Clarence B. Moore. He 
gives analyses of several articles from recent New York sites, 
but was unable to obtain those of native copper. From other — 
sources some were procured. In that paper he quotes a per- 
sonal letter from Prof. F. W. Putnam which is of general 
interest and is therefore reproduced here: 
Just after I wrote my little paper on copper in the museum 
as the beginning of a series of papers on the use of metals, 
