DISCOYEBY OF INDIAN BELICS NEAB BBOCBVILLE. 333 



our present generation. The condition of the bones furnished indis- 

 putable proof of their great antiquity. The skulls were so completely 

 reduced to their earthy constituents that they were exceedingly 

 brittle and fell in pieces when removed and exposed to the atmosphere. 

 The metallic remains however, of more enduring material, as also, 

 several stone chisels, gouges made of the same durable material, and 

 probably designed for tapping the sugar maple, and some flint arrow 

 heads, all remain in their original condition, and furnish evidence of 

 the same rude arts which Ave know to be still practiced by 

 the aborigines of the far west. A few yards distant from this spot, 

 and at about the same depth from the surface, another circular place 

 of sepulture was exposed to view ; but here the organic remains had 

 been subjected to the action of fire, and the charred and partly 

 consumed bones, with the charcoal ashes, bore testimony to the fact 

 that the decomposition which time and the action of their mother 

 earth would have produced, had been anticipated by the hand of man 

 and his use of the fiery element. With reference to the question 

 whether these copper remains are of European or native origin, I 

 have only further to remark, that their structure is very rude ; that 

 they appear to have been wrought solely by means of the hammer, 

 without the melting pot or the aid of fire ; that while they were 

 accompanied by stone and flint tools and weapons, no implements 

 were found made of iron, which would have been the metal chosen by 

 the European artizaii ; and finally that the copper appears to corres- 

 pond in quality with the specimens of the native metal now found in 

 such large quantities on the shores of Lake Superior. There is also 

 a curious fact, which these relics appear to confirm, that the Indians 

 possessed the art of hardening and tempering copper, so as to give it 

 as jaood an edge as iron or steel. This ancient Indian art is now 

 entirely lost. 



For these reasons, as well as from the nature of the soil, which is 

 one likely to preserve organic remains for a very long period of time, 

 and the greatly decomposed state in which the bones were found, I 

 should not hesitate to pronounce these instruments, tools and weapons 

 of much older construction than the discovery of Canada by Euro- 

 peans. In this part of the continent one might expect to find some- 

 thing bearing the stamp of Gallic manufacture as the French were 

 the first to ascend the St. Lawrence and remained for some time 

 masters of its shores. Whereas in none of the relics which I have 

 seen is there any thing which one could for a moment suppose to b# 

 of French workmanship. 



