54 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



leaf from the early history of northern Michigan. The 

 Keweenaw Peninsula, a celebrated copper region, juts 

 out to the northeast from the south shore of Lake Supe- 

 rior. The copper-bearing strata run parallel to the coast 

 and dip sharply to the northwest. The district is one 

 of the very few places in the world where the metal 

 is found in its native state, scattered through the rock 

 in small particles, and less frequently in great tangled 

 masses. 



This region, then an unknown primeval forest, was 

 ceded by the Chippeway Indians to the United States 

 in 1843. The short excitement, a year or two later, fol- 

 lowing the discovery of copper, left the district still a 

 wilderness, with here and there a small copper mine lost 

 in the forest, and dependent on the little settlements of 

 Hancock and Houghton at the base of the Peninsula. 



Such was the condition in the early part of the second 

 half of the last century, when a man named E. J. Hul- 

 bert was surveying a road in this wild country. One 

 day, while walking about in the woods, he stumbled 

 across a curious pit and, being an intelligent man, be- 

 came interested in examining the hole. It appeared to 

 be artificial ; a huge hemlock standing on the refuse 

 thrown up on the edge of the pit bore evidence of its 

 extreme age. Clearing away the rubbish at the bottom, 

 he found a very considerable quantity of verdigris. 



This pit is now supposed to have been a prehistoric 

 cache. On Isle Royal, an island opposite Keweenaw 

 Peninsula, there are remains of ancient workings on 

 copper veins. It is thought that the Indians, after min- 

 ing there in the summer, would in the fall paddle to 

 the Peninsula and cross it on their way south. A party 

 of Indians, overtaken by an early winter, would have 



