Prehistoric man

by Sir Daniel Wilson

The reference thus made to the popular theory of some lost art of hardening the native copper, afforded an opportunity of testing it in reference to the Brockville relics. They were accordingly submitted to my colleague, Professor Henry Croft, of University College, Toronto, with the following results: The object of the experiments was to ascertain whether the metal of which the implements are made is identical with the native copper of the Lake Superior mines; or whether it has been subjected to some manufacturing process, or mixed with any other substance, by which its hardness might have been increased. A careful examination established the following conclusions:—No perceptible difference could be observed between the hardness of the implements and that of metallic copper from Lake Superior. The knife or small dagger was cleansed as far as possible from its green coating; and its specific gravity ascertained as 8·66. A fragment, broken off the end of the broad, flat implement, described as a “copper knife of full size,” having been freed from its coating, was found to have a specific gravity of 8·58. During the cleaning of this fragment, a few brilliant white specks became visible on its surface, which appeared, from their colour and lustre, to be silver. The structure of the metal was also highly laminated, as if the instrument had been brought to its present shape by hammering out a solid mass of copper, which had either split up, or had been originally formed of several pieces. These laminæ of course contained air, and the metal was covered with rust, hence the specific gravity. The process by which a flat piece of copper has been overlapped, and wrought with the hammer into a rude spear-head, is shown in the accompanying illustration. A portion of very solid copper, from Lake Superior, of about the same weight as the fragment, was weighed in water, and its gravity found to be 8·92. The specific gravity of absolutely pure copper varies from 8·78 to 8·96, according to the greater or less degree of aggregation it has received during its manufacture. The fragment was completely dissolved by nitric acid; and the solution, on being tested for silver by hydrochloric acid, gave a scarcely perceptible opacity, indicating the presence of an exceedingly minute trace of silver. The copper having been separated by hydro-sulphuric acid, the residual liquid was tested for other metals. A very minute trace of iron was detected. The native copper from Lake Superior was tested in the same manner, and was found to contain no trace of silver, but a minute trace of iron. From this, it appears that the implements are composed of copper almost pure, differing in no material respect from the native copper of Lake Superior.

Fig. 68.—Brockville Copper Spear.

It is thus apparent that, in the case of the Brockville relics, the theory of a lost art of hardening and tempering copper was a mere reflex of the prevalent popular fallacy; and there is no reason for anticipating a different result in other cases in which the same theory is tested.

More recently a well-finished dagger of hammered copper, nine inches long, and a smaller copper gouge, have been turned up by the plough: the former at Burnhamthorpe, and the latter at Chinguacousy, in Ontario; and from time to time similar discoveries suffice to show the ancient diffusion of the native copper throughout the whole region of the great lakes. In his account of the discovery of the Brockville relics, Dr. Reynolds assumes them to pertain to the present Indian race. The evidences of antique sepulture, however, are unmistakable; and other proofs suggest a different origin. Mr. Squier, by whom they had been previously described, remarks in the Appendix to his Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York:[^[75]] “Some implements entirely corresponding with these have been found in Isle Royale, and at other places in and around Lake Superior.” But besides the copper implements, there lay in the same deposit a miniature mask of terra-cotta of peculiar workmanship, suggestive rather of relation to the arts of the Mound-Builders. Mr. Squier has figured it from an incorrect drawing, which indicates a minuter representation of Indian features than the original justifies. It is engraved here, the size of the original, from a photographic copy, and, as will be seen, is a rude mask, such as is by no means uncommon among the small terra-cottas of Mexico and Central America. This mingling of traces of a certain amount of artistic skill with the arts of the primitive metallurgist, entirely corresponds with the disclosures of the ancient mounds of the Mississippi; and, indeed, agrees with other partial manifestations of art in an imperfectly developed civilisation.

Fig. 69.—Terra-cotta Mask.

I was struck, when examining the rude stone mauls of the miners of Ontonagon, by their resemblance to some which I have seen, obtained from ancient copper workings of North Wales. In a communication made to the British Archæological Institute by the Hon. William Owen Stanley, in 1850, he gave an account of an ancient shaft broken into at the copper mines of Llandudno, Carnarvonshire. In this were found mining implements, consisting of chisels, or picks of bronze, and a number of rudely-fashioned stone mauls of various sizes, weighing from about 2 lbs. to 40 lbs. Their appearance suggested that they had been used for breaking, pounding, or detaching the ore from the rock; and the character both of the bronze and stone implements seems to point to a period long prior to the Roman occupation of Britain. These primitive mauls are stated to be similar to water-worn stones found on the sea-beach at Pen Mawr. Mr. Stanley also describes others, corresponding in like manner to those found on the shores of Lake Superior, which had been met with in ancient workings in Anglesea. Were we, therefore, disposed to generalise from such analogies, as ingenious speculators on the lost history of the New World have been prone to do, we might trace in this correspondence a confirmation of the supposed colonisation of America, in the twelfth century, by Madoc, the son of Owen Gwynnedd, king of North Wales. But the resemblance between the primitive Welsh and American mining tools, can be regarded only as evidence of the corresponding operations of the human mind, when placed under similar circumstances, and with the same limited means, which is illustrated in so many ways by the arts of the stone-period, whether of the most ancient or of modern date. Nor can such correspondences be regarded as altogether accidental. They confirm the idea of certain innate and instinctive operations of human ingenuity, ever present and ready to be called forth for the accomplishment of similar purposes by the same limited means.

From this review of the evidences of long-abandoned mining operations on the shores and islands of Lake Superior, it cannot admit of doubt that in them we look on the traces of an imperfectly developed yet highly interesting native civilisation, pertaining to centuries long anterior to the discovery of America in the fifteenth century. The question naturally arises: By whom were those ancient mines wrought? Was it by the ancestry of the present Indian tribes of North America, or by a distinct and long-superseded race? The tendency of opinion among American writers has been towards a unity and comprehensive isolation of the races and arts of the New World. Hence the theories alike of Morton and of Schoolcraft, though founded on diverse premises, favour the idea that the germs of all that is most noticeable even in the civilisation of Central America may be found among the native arts, and the manners and customs of the forest tribes. But neither the traditions nor the arts of the Indians of the northern lakes supply any satisfactory link connecting them with the Copper-Miners or the Mound-Builders. Of Loonsfoot, an old Chippewa chief of Lake Superior, the improbable statement is made that he could trace back his ancestry by name, as hereditary chiefs of his tribe, for upwards of four hundred years. At the request of Mr. Whittlesey he was questioned by an educated half-breed, a nephew of his own, relative to the ancient copper mines, and his answer was in substance as follows:—“A long time ago the Indians were much better off than they are now. They had copper axes, arrow-heads, and spears, and also stone axes. Until the French came here, and blasted the rocks with powder, we have no traditions of the copper mines being worked. Our forefathers used to build big canoes and cross the lake over to Isle Royale, where they found more copper than anywhere else. The stone hammers that are now found in the old diggings we know nothing about. The Indians were formerly much more numerous and happier. They had no such wars and troubles as they have now.” At La Pointe on Lake Superior, it was my good fortune to meet with Beshekee, or Buffalo, a rugged specimen of an old Chippewa chief. He retained all the wild Indian ideas, though accustomed to frequent intercourse with white men; boasted of the scalps he had taken; and held to his pagan creed as the only religion for the Indian, whatever the Great Spirit might have taught the white man. His grandson, an educated half-breed, acted as interpreter, and his reply to similar inquiries was embodied in the following sententious declaration of Indian philosophy:—“The white man thinks he is the superior of the Indian, but it is not so. The Red Indian was made by the Great Spirit, who made the forests and the game, and he needs no lessons from the white man how to live. If the same Great Spirit made the white man, he has made him of a different nature. Let him act according to his nature; it is the best for him; but for us it is not good. We had the red-iron before white men brought the black-iron amongst us; but if ever such works as you describe were carried on along these Lake shores before white men came here, then the Great Spirit must once before have made men with a different nature from his red children, such as you white men have. As for us, we live as our forefathers have always done.”

La Pointe, or Chaquamegon, where this interview took place, was visited by the Jesuit Father, Claude Alloüez, in 1666, and is described by him as a beautiful bay, the shores of which were occupied by the Chippewas in such numbers that their warriors alone amounted to eight hundred. In the journal of his travels, he thus refers to the mineral resources for which the region is now most famed:—“The savages reverence the lake as a divinity, and offer sacrifices to it because of its great size, for it is two hundred leagues long and eighty broad; and also, because of the abundance of fish it supplies to them, in lieu of game, which is scarce in its environs. They often find in the lake pieces of copper weighing from ten to twenty pounds. I have seen many such pieces in the hands of the savages; and as they are superstitious, they regard them as divinities, or as gifts which the gods who dwell beneath its waters have bestowed on them to promote their welfare. Hence they preserve such pieces of copper wrapped up along with their most prized possessions. By some they have been preserved upwards of fifty years, and others have had them in their families from time immemorial, cherishing them as their household gods. There was visible for some time, near the shore, a large rock entirely of copper, with its top rising above the water, which afforded an opportunity for those passing to cut pieces from it. But when I passed in that vicinity nothing could be seen of it. I believe that the storms, which are here very frequent, and as violent as on the ocean, had covered the rock with sand. Our Indians wished to persuade me it was a divinity which had disappeared, but for what reason they would not say.”[^[76]]