THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER, FLORIDA. 241 



.. 



Note : The sample contains no lead, bismuth, arsenic, antimony, or zinc." 

 As a result of these analyses, we see that in "Lake" copper, silver and iron 



are constant, and sometimes the only impurities ; while arsenic, nickel and cobalt 



are occasionally present in minute quantities. Lead and bismuth are invariably 



absent. 



All these characteristics Lake Superior copper has in common with the copper 



of the mounds. 



We have found no antimony in " Lake" copper, but are of the opinion that a 



more extended range of analyses would occasionally show its presence in minute 



quantities. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



After a careful survey of the field, we have arrived at the following conclu- 

 sions, based upon facts as set forth in this paper : — 



1. That the so-called copper found with objects of European make along the 

 St. John's and, we may add, in other portions of the United States, is almost 

 universally not copper but brass ; and. conversely, that brass does not occur with 

 original deposits of copper in mounds otherwise containing only objects of unques- 

 tioned aboriginal origin. 



2. That the workmanship on the copper of the mounds of the St. John's is 

 aboriginal. 



3. That the copper itself is of aboriginal production, the proof being mechani- 

 cal, archieological. and chemical. 



4. That such being the case, if copper plates cannot be produced without re- 

 course to annealing, then we must concede to the aborigines a knowledge of that art. 



5. That the copper of the mounds of the St. John's is native copper, as shown 

 by its high percentage of copper, a percentage not obtainable by early smelting 

 processes, and by its freedom from arsenic and antimony in some instances, and the 

 very small percentage in others of these impurities which are found to a much 

 greater extent in the early copper from the sulphide ores of Europe. In addition, 

 lead, used in smelting processes of Europe and not eliminated from many of the 

 ores, is present in earlier sheet copper, and is without exception absent from native 

 copper and from the copper of the mounds. 



6. That the Florida copper may have been derived from various sources, pos- 

 sibh" in part from Mexico, New Mexico or Arizona, and probably to a certain ex- 

 tent from Cuba ; but that the main supply was obtained from the Lake Superior 

 region, most of whose copper is non-arsenical. 



7. That cupper in which silver is visibly present, has, so far as is known, for 

 its only source of supply on this continent, the Lake Superior region. 



8. Incidentally, that mound copper from other localities, including the copper 

 of the famous Etowah plates of Georgia, and of the no less well-known Hopewell 

 mounds of Ohio, is. like the Florida copper, aboriginal, having nothing in common 

 with the products of the impure European sulphides and imperfect smelting pro- 

 cesses of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. 



