CHAPTER VIII.

THE METALS. Dawn of a Metallurgic Era—Primitive Copper-Working—Copper Region of Lake Superior—The Pictured Rocks—Jackson Iron Mountain—The Cliff Mine—Copper Tools—Ancient Mining Trenches—Great extent of Works—Mines of Isle Royale—Their estimated Age—Ancient Mining Implements—Stone Mauls and Axes—Ontonagon Mining Relics—Sites of Copper Manufactories—Native Copper and Silver—Brockville Copper Implements—Lost Metallurgic Arts—Chemical Analyses—Native Terra-Cottas—Ancient British Mining Tools—The Race of the Copper Mines—Chippewa Superstitions—Earliest notices of the Copper Region—Ontonagon Mass of Copper—Ancient Native Traffic—Native use of Metals—Condition of the Mound-Builders—Mineral Resources—Antiquity of Copper Workings—Desertion of the Mines, 198