Prehistoric man

by Sir Daniel Wilson

The process of working the ancient mines seems to be tolerably clearly indicated by the discoveries referred to. The soil having been removed by means of wooden spades, doubtless with the aid of copper tools to break up the solid earth and clay: remains of charcoal, met with in numerous instances on the surface of the rock, show that fire was an important agent for overcoming the cohesion between the copper and its matrix. Before the introduction of gunpowder fire was universally employed in excavating rock; and where fuel abounds, as in the old Harz and Altenberg mining districts of Europe, it is even now found to be quite as economical in destroying siliceous rocks. Stone hammers or mauls were next employed to break up the metalliferous rock. These have been found in immense numbers on different mining sites. Mr. Knapp obtained in one locality upwards of ten cart-loads; and I was shown a well at Ontonagon constructed almost entirely out of stone hammers, obtained from ancient workings in the immediate vicinity. Many of these are mere water-worn boulders of greenstone or porphyry, roughly chipped at the centre, so as to admit of their being secured by a withe around them. But others are well-finished, with a single or double groove for attaching the handle by which they were wielded. They weigh from ten to forty pounds; but many are broken, and some of the specimens I saw were worn and fractured from frequent use.

The extent to which co-operation was carried on by the miners, with the imperfect means at their command, is illustrated by the objects recovered on exploring one of their trenches, on a hill to the south of the Copper Falls mines. On removing the accumulations from the excavation, stone axes of large size made of greenstone, and shaped to receive withe-handles, and some large round greenstone masses that had apparently been used for battering-rams, were found. “They had round holes bored in them to the depth of several inches, which seemed to have been designed for wooden plugs to which withe-handles might be attached, so that several men could swing them with sufficient force to break the rock and the projecting masses of copper. Some of them were broken, and some of the projecting ends of rock exhibited marks of having been battered in the manner here suggested.”[^[74]]

But the industrious miners fully appreciated the practical utility of the metal they were in search of; and it is not to be supposed that they employed themselves thus laboriously in mining copper, and yet themselves used only stone and wooden tools. Copper axes, gads, chisels, and gouges, as well as knives and spear-heads, of considerable diversity of form, have been brought to light, all of them wrought from the virgin copper by means of the hammer, without smelting, alloy, or the use of fire. At Ontonagon, I had an opportunity of examining an interesting collection of mining relics, found a few months before. These consisted of copper tools, with solid triangular blades like bayonets, one fourteen inches, and the others about twelve inches in length; a chisel, and two singularly shaped copper gouges about fourteen inches long and two inches wide, the precise use of which it would be difficult to determine. The whole were discovered buried in a bed of clay on the banks of the river Ontonagon, about a mile above its mouth, during the process of levelling it for the purposes of a brick-field. Above the clay was an alluvial deposit of two feet of sand, and in this, and over the relics of the ancient copper workers, a pine-tree had grown to full maturity. Its gigantic roots gave proof, in the estimation of those who witnessed their removal, of more than two centuries’ growth; while the present ordinary level of the river is such that it would require a rise of forty feet to make the deposit of sand beneath which they lay.

Fig. 65.—Ontonagon Copper Implement.

An experienced practical miner, who had been among the first to reopen some of the ancient works at the Minnesota mine, recognised in the copper gouges implements adapted to produce the singular tool-marks which then excited his curiosity. Subjoined is a representation of a peculiar type of copper tools, sketched from one of those found at Ontonagon. The socket, formed by hammering out the lower part flat, and then turning it over partially at each side, corresponds to some primitive forms of bronze implements found in Britain and the north of Europe; but the latter are cast of a metallic compound, and prove a skill in metallurgy far in advance of the old metal-workers of Ontonagon.

Another, and in some respects more interesting discovery, was made at a point lying to the cast of Keweenaw Point, in the rich iron district of Marquette, in what appears to have been the ancient bed of the river Carp. About ten feet above the present level of its channel, various weapons and implements of copper were found. Large trees grew over this deposit also, and the evidences of antiquity seemed not less obvious than in that of Ontonagon. The relics included knives, spear or lance-heads, and arrow-heads, some of which were ornamented with silver. One of the knives, made, with its handle, out of a single piece of copper, measured altogether about seven inches long, of which the blade was nearly two-thirds, and of an oval shape. It was ornamented with pieces of silver attached to it, and was inlaid with a stripe of the same metal from point to haft. Numerous fragments and shavings of copper were also found, some of which were such as, it was assumed, could only have been cut by a fine sharp tool; and the whole sufficed to indicate, even more markedly than those at Ontonagon, that not only was the native copper wrought in ancient times in the Lake Superior regions, but that manufactories were established along its shores, and on the banks of its navigable rivers. The recognition of silver as a distinct metal by the present race of Indians is proved by the specific term shooneya, by which it is designated in Chippewa; whereas gold is only known as ozahwah-shooneya, or yellow silver.

Fig. 66.		Fig. 67.
Brockville Copper Dagger.		Gouge.

In 1856, Dr. Thomas Reynolds of Brockville exhibited to the Canadian Institute a collection of copper and other relics discovered in that neighbourhood under singular circumstances; and possessing a special interest owing to the distance of the site from Lake Superior. They included a peculiarly-shaped chisel or gouge, six inches in length, (Fig. 67), a rude spear-head, seven inches long (Fig. 68), and two small daggers or knives, one of which is shown in Fig. 66, all wrought by means of the hammer, out of native copper which had never been subjected to fire, as is proved by the silver remaining in detached crystals in the copper. They were found at the head of Les Galops Rapids, on the river St. Lawrence, about fifteen feet below the surface, along with twenty skeletons disposed in a circular space with their feet towards the centre. Dr. Reynolds remarks of them: “Some of the skeletons were of gigantic proportions. The lower jaw of one is sufficiently large to surround the corresponding bone of an adult of our present generation. The condition of the bones furnished indisputable proof of their great antiquity. The skulls were so completely reduced to their earthy constituents that they were exceedingly brittle, and fell in pieces when removed and exposed to the atmosphere. The metallic remains, however, of more enduring material, as also several stone chisels and gouges, and some flint arrow-heads, all remain in their original condition; and furnish evidence of the same rude arts which we know to be still practised by the aborigines of the far West.” After discussing the possibility of their European origin, Dr. Reynolds adds: “There is also a curious fact, which these relics appear to confirm, that the Indians possessed the art of hardening and tempering copper, so as to give it as good an edge as iron or steel. This ancient Indian art is now entirely lost.”