re 
od 
A. Morlot on Archeology. 29 
It is then worth our while to enquire more closely into the origin 
of bronze. 
Copper was not difficult to obtain. In the first place, virgin 
copper is not particularly scarce. Then, the different kinds of ore 
which contain copper combined with other elements, are either 
highly colored, or present a marked metallic appearance, and are 
consequently easily known; they are besides not hard to smelt, 
so as to separate the metal. Finally, copper-ore is not at all 
scarce; it is met with in the older geological series of most 
countries. 
and Peru, had bronze, composed of copper and tin, and used it 
for manufacturing arms and cutting-instruments in the absence 
of iron and steel were unknown in the New World 
fty tons, have lately been discovered. There was even 
found at the bottom of an old mine a great mass of copper, which 
the ancients had evidently been unable to raise, and which they 
stone hatchets.+ : 
e date of that American copper-age 18 unknown. All we 
know is, that it must reach at least as far back as ten centuries, 
that space of time being deemed necessary for the growth of the 
* Squier and Davis: Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Smithsonian | 
Contributions to Knowledge; Washington, 1848. It is one of the most splendid 
archeological works ever published. ce ne . 
Lapham: The Antiquities of Wisconsin, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- 
edge, 1855, p. 76. Eg 
