API'INDIX. VJMO. 



it in all directions. This rock, llthoogh many of its distinctive 

 characters arc lost, 18 evidently a dark colored terpentine, with 



small interepereed n milky quarts. 



The m;hs of copp. natcd as to all'ord but little th.it 



would enable us to judge of its original geological position. In 

 lining the eastern fork of the river, 1 discovered small water* 



worn masses of trap-rock, m which were specks of imbedded 

 carbonate of copper and copper black; and with them were oc- 

 casionally associated minute ■pecks of serpentine, in some re- 

 spects resembling that which is attached to the large mass of 

 copper; anil facts would lead us to infer that the trap formation 

 which appears on Lake Superior east of the Ontonagon River, 

 crosses this section of countrv at or near the source of that river 

 and at length forms one of the spurs of the Porcupine Mountains. 



Several smaller masses of insulated native copper have been 

 discovered on the borders of Lake Superior, hut that upon On- 

 tonagoa River is the only one which is now known to remain. 



\t as early a period as before the American revolution, an 

 I I i » 1 1 mini:iL r company directed their operations to the country 

 borderinu on Lake Superior, and Ontonagon River was one point 

 to which their attention was immediately directed. Traces of a 

 shaft, sunk in the clay hill, near a mass of copper, are still visi- 

 ble, a memento of iL r norance and folly. 



Operations were also commenced on the southern shore of Lake 

 Superior, near the mouth of a small stream, which, from that cir- 

 cumstance, is called Miners 1 River. Parts of the names of the 

 miners, carved upon the sandstone rock at the mouth of the 

 river are still visible. What circumstance led to the selection 

 of this spot does not now appear. No mineral traces are at this 

 day perceptible, except occasional discolorations of the sand- 

 stone rock by what is apparently a mixture of the carbonate of 

 iron and copper ; and this is only to be observed where water, 

 holding in solution an extremely minute portion of these salts, 



has trickled slowly over those racks* 



It does not. in fact* appear that the red sandstone, which con- 

 stitutes the principal rock formation of the southern shore,of Lake 

 8 • nor. is in any ; tallifcrous in any considcrabledcrce. 



If this be true, it would n mure but little reflection to convince one 

 of the inexpediency of conducting mining operations at either of 



