

99-9130 



per 



cent 





0-0198 





u 





0-0026 





a 





Trace. 









00233 





a 





0-0080 





a 



THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 225 



During the present summer (1894) Gerard Fowke, Esq., has obligingly con- 

 ducted for us investigations in a "double mound" on the farm of Mr. J. M. Van 

 Meter, three miles south of Piketon, Pike County, Ohio. 



With human remains, below the base, in a central position in the mound, were 

 five sheets of copper averaging in size about 3*5 by 2 - 5 inches. One of these 

 sheets, forwarded to Ledoux and Company, was reported upon as follows : — 



" Copper 

 Silver 

 Arsenic 

 Antimony 

 Iron 

 Nickel and cobalt 



" Note : The above analysis was made after removing the superimposed film 

 of oxides and carbonate from the sample. Special examination for lead, bismuth 

 and zinc shows that none of these is present." 



From these analyses of copper from the mounds we note the very high percent- 

 age of copper, the constant occurrence of silver and of iron, the totat absence of lead, 

 the occasional presence in minute quantities of arsenic, of antimony, aud of nickel 

 and cobalt. In no case, hozuever, does the amount of any impurity present, with the 

 exception of silver and of iron, greatly exceed a trace. 



Copper after White Contact. — It is a noteworthy fact that in a great majority 

 of cases where the discovery of copper with articles giving evidence of White con- 

 tact is reported, the metal is in reality brass. 



During all our researches on the St. John's in but one case have we found cop- 

 per (and this was possibly bronze) in association with glass, iron and other products 

 of Europe. 



In the mound at Bayard Point, where alone on the river we have found, other 

 than superficially, articles distinctly European, brass was met with, but no copper. 



Professor Putnam, with the collections of the Peabody Museum to draw upon 

 and with the warmest desire to aid us, has been able to furnish us brass alone from 

 post-Columbian Indian village sites and graves. 



From a post-Columbian Onondaga village site, Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, the 

 well-known authority, kindly forwarded us a number of ornaments, etc., all of 

 which were likewise of brass. We have it from this gentleman and from other 

 sources that the copper arrow heads, so called, are of the same material, as also 

 are the kettles usually spoken of as copper. 



"Wood, in his 'New England Prospect,' published in 1631 (page 90), distinctly 

 states that the Indians obtained brass from the English for their ornaments and 

 arrow heads." 1 We see, then, that much that has heretofore been considered cop- 

 per is in reality brass, and that brass and not copper was as a rule furnished the 

 Indians by the Whites, the natives being quick to take advantage of the superior 

 character of the alloyed metal. 



1 Squier, Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York, page 183, el seq. 



