330 CERTAIN ABORIGINAL REMAINS OF THE ALABAMA RIVER. 



" The plate is coated with oxide and carbonate of copper and in some places 

 also with clay, and with oxide and phosphate of iron. 



" The percentage of copper in the metallic portion of the plate was estimated 

 to be 99.969 per cent." 



Here we clearly have an ornament of native copper, of aboriginal make, used 

 by the Indians along with objects obtained from the whites, just as in this mound 

 we met with beads of shell and beads of glass together. 



Just where this native copper came from, of course we cannot say. It may 

 have come down the Coosa river from where some of De Soto's men saw highly- 

 colored copper, undoubtedly native, a locality believed by Pickett 1 to be in the 

 present De Kalb County, Alabama, 



More likely it came from the " Lake " region of Michigan and worked its way 

 southward in course of trade. 



Another breast-piece from this mound, showing no lamination, was marked 

 " B" and submitted to Doctor Keller who reports as follows : 



" The quantitative analysis of the copper plate marked " B " resulted as follows : 



Copper 97.425 per cent. 



Silver . . 0.037 " " 



Lead 1.082 " " 



Bismuth 0.035 " " 



Antimony 0.378 " " 



Arsenic 0.071 " " 



Iron 0.024 " " 



Nickel 0.013 " " 



Residue, O, CL, etc 0.935 " " 



In this case we have a copper loaded with impurities, among which is lead, 

 evidently the product of an early smelting process — in a word, copper supplied to 

 the aborigines by Europeans. 



It is seldom we are able to give from one mound, native copper showing 

 aboriginal methods of work and copper undoubtedly obtained by the aborigines 

 from European sources. 



BRASS. 



Bells. — Two sheet-brass bells resembling sleigh-bells, were found with one 

 burial and one with another. We read that hawk-bells, small bells attached to the 

 legs of falcons, brought over by Europeans, were popular among the aborigines, but 

 the bells found in this mound, each about 1 inch in diameter, were, perhaps, too 

 large for use in falconry. The upper part of a small but heavy brass bell was 

 present with a burial. 



Miscellaneous. — An object of brass, perhaps the base of a candlestick, also 

 was met with. 



1 "The History of Alabama," p. 27. 



