American Associatdo?i. 293 



tJie ore. Wheu they got a large mass they used stone hammers 

 to break off the iDrojections. They had no means of raising the 

 very large masses, nor had they any way of clearing out the 

 water from the bottom. It seemed that the miners had been 

 accustomed constantly to throw back the rubbish into the mine, 

 so that there were now no traces on the surface. These ^works 

 extended through one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles on 

 the south side of Lake Superior. Sometimes there were cavities 

 of thirty feet, as large as that room ; in other cases they made 

 excavations in the bluffs, which were now occupied by porcupines, 

 bears, &c. The stone hammers em_ployed were nothing but 

 boulders of green stone or trap, having a groove round them, into 

 whicli a wythe was twisted. Some had no su.ch groove, and 

 the mode of swinging them was unknown. Wooden shovels were 

 also employed, and spear heads with a socket. There were, 

 besides, tools like knives and chisels, all made of copper. Timber 

 had also been found with hatchet marks on it. From these 

 marks he judged that the people who worked these mines had a 

 connection with the ancient Mexicans, known as Toltecs or Aztecs, 

 It appeared from the works of Squier and Davis on the Mounds 

 of Ohio, that in those j^laces there had been found tools which 

 would have made marks like those noticed on the timber found 

 in the Superior mining region. Again, the connection between 

 these inhabitants of Ohio, and the miners of Lake Superior seem- 

 ed to be established from this fact — that in the Lake Superior 

 mines alone were to be found pure copper, having specks of pure 

 silver in them. Now the tools found in Ohio were found to 

 contain these specks of silver, and it was evident that these tools 

 had been hammered out cold, because if they had been melted 

 the silver specks would have disappeared. Then the Spaniards 

 on their arrival found the Mexicans in occupation of fortification?, 

 mounds and pyramids very much like those of Ohio. In this way 

 it appeared to him that a connection was traced between the peo- 

 ple of Mexico and the miners of Lake Superior. He considered 

 from a comparison of the trees found upon the tops of the trench- 

 es, and of the extent of the works, with the diflSculties which the 

 miners must have had in working them, that it must have been 

 1200 years since the mines weie abandoned, and 500 more dur- 

 ing which they were occupied. His impression was that the 

 miners resided in a warm country, and came to work these mines 

 in the summer time, taking their produce home in the winter." 



