Читать книгу Summary Narrative of an Exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820 - Henry Rowe Schoolcraft - Страница 10

Fig. 1

The rock consists of a mass of native copper in a tabular boulder of serpentine. Its face is almost purely metallic, and more splendent than appears to consist with its being purely metallic copper. There is no appearance of oxidation. Its size, roughly measured, is three feet four inches, by three feet eight inches, and about twelve or fourteen inches thick in the thickest part. The weight of copper, exclusive of the rock, is not readily estimated; it may be a ton, or a ton and a half. Old authors report it at more than double this weight. The quantity has been, however, much diminished by visitors, who have cut freely from it. I obtained adequate specimens, but found my chisels too highly tempered, and my hammer not heavy enough to separate large masses. Having made the necessary examinations, we took our way back up the elevated banks of the river, and across the forest about six miles, to the final place of debarkation of Gov. Cass and his party. But our fears were at once excited on learning that the Governor, with his guide, Wabishkepenais, had not reached the camp. It was already beginning to be dark, and the gloom of night, which is impressive in these solitudes, was fast closing around us. Guns were fired, to denote our position, and a light canoe was immediately manned, placed in charge of one of the gentlemen, and sent up the river in search. This canoe had not proceeded a mile, when the object of search was descried, with his companions, sitting on the banks of the river, with a real jaded air, with his Indian guide standing at no great distance. Wabishkepenais had been bewildered in his tracks, and finally struck the river by the merest chance. The Governor, on reaching camp, looked as if he had been carried over steeps and through gloomy defiles, which had completely exhausted his strength, and he was not long in retiring to his tent, willing to leave such rough explorations for the present, at least, to other persons, or, if he ever resumed them, to do it with better guides. Poor Wabishkepenais looked chagrined and as woebegone himself as if he had encountered the bad influences of half the spirits of his Indian mythology; for the fellow had really been lost in his own woods, and with a charge by whom he had felt honored, and employed his best skill to conduct. The camp-fires already threw their red glare among the trees as night spread her sable pall over us. The tents were pitched; the canoes turned up on the shore to serve as a canopy for the men to sleep under. Indians and Canadians were soon engaged at their favorite pipes, and mingled their tones and hilarious conversation; and we finally all slept the sounder for our eventful day's toils and misadventures. But deeply printed on our memory, and long to remain there, are the thrilling scenes of that day and that night.

At five o'clock the next morning, the entire camp was roused and in motion, when we began to descend the stream. We had descended about ten miles, when the Ontonagon Indians stopped the canoes to examine a bear-fall, on the east bank. It was a fine open forest, elevated some six or eight feet above the water. It was soon announced that a bear was entrapped. We all ascended the bank, and visited the locality. The structure had been so planned that the animal must needs creep lowly under a crib of logs to get at the bait, which he no sooner disturbed than a weight of logs fell on his prostrated legs. The animal sat up partially on his fore paws, when we advanced, the hinder being pressed heavily to the earth. One of the Indians soon fired a ball through his head, but it did not kill him, he still kept his upright position. Dr. Wolcott then requested permission to fire a shot, which was aimed at the heart, and took effect about that part, but did not kill him. One of the Indians then dispatched him with an axe. He was no sooner dead than one of the Indians, stepping up, addressed him by the name Muk-wah, shook him by the paw, with a smiling countenance, saying, in the Indian language, that he was sorry they had been under the necessity of killing him, and hoped the offence would be forgiven, as one of the shots fired had been from an American. [52]

This act of the Indian addressing the bear, will be better understood, when it is stated that their mythology tells them, that the spirit of the animal must be encountered in a future state, when the enchantment to which it is condemned in this life, will be taken off.

On passing down the river, an Indian had promised to disclose another mass of native copper, near the river, and we stopped at a spot indicated, to enable him to bring it. Whether he repented of his too free offer, agreeably to Indian superstition, or feared some calamity to follow the disclosure, or really encountered some difficulty in finding it, I know not, but it is certain that, after some time spent in the search, or affected search, he came back to the river without producing it.

Soon after this incident, we reached the mouth of the river, and found the party left encamped at that point, in charge of Mr. Trowbridge and Mr. Doty, well, nothing having occurred in our absence. The wind was, however, adverse to our embarkation, had it been immediately desired.

A council of the Ontonagon Indians was summoned, which met in the after part of the day; speeches were delivered, and replied to, and presents distributed. A silver medal was presented to Wabishkepenais.

Head winds continuing, we were farther detained at this spot the following day. While thus detained, an Ontonagon Indian brought in a mass of native copper, from the banks of this river, weighing eight or nine pounds. This mass was of a flattened, orbicular shape, and its surface coated with a green oxide. At a subsequent part of my acquaintance with this river, another mass of native copper (still deposited in my cabinet) was brought to me, from the east fork of the river, which weighed from forty to fifty pounds. This mass, of a columnar shape, originally embraced a piece of stone which the Indian finding it had detached. It was also coated with a dark green oxide of copper. Both of these masses appeared to have been volcanic. Neither of them had the slightest traces of gangue, or vein-matter, nor of attrition in being removed from the parent beds. The following sketches depict the shapes of these masses.

Fig. 2 and Fig. 3

With respect to the general question of the mineral character of this part of the country, and the probable value of its mineral and metallic deposits to the public domain, the entire class of facts, from which a judgment must be formed, are favorable. [53] Salts and oxides of copper are not only seen in various places in its stratification, but these indications of mineral wealth in this article are confirmed, by the subsequent discovery of masses of native copper, along the shore, and imbedded in its traps and amygdaloids. In addition to the opportunities of observation furnished by this expedition, subsequent public duties led me to perform seven separate trips along its shores, and each of these but served to accumulate the evidences of its extraordinary mineral wealth. Indications of the sulphurets, arseniates, and other ores of this metal are found in the older class of horizontal rocks; but it is to the trap-rocks alone that we must look for the veins of native metal. Some of these masses contain silver, in a state of combination. Traces of this metal, chiefly in the boulder form, are found in the metalliferous horizontal strata. Nor is there wanting evidence, that there are localities of virgin copper, which do not promise a considerable percentage of the metal. A mass of steatite, imbedding a heavy mass of pure native silver, which had been probably carried from the northwest, with the drift stratum, was found cast out quite into the Huron basin; and this rock, in its intimate associations with the serpentine formation of Lake Superior, should be closely scrutinized. There is also a formation of slate and quartz in the primitive district, which is entitled to particular attention.

Inorganic masses are developed, throughout the globe, without regard to climate. Russia yields the precious metals in great profusion, and there are no laws governing the distribution of these metals, which forbid the expectation that they should be abundantly disclosed by the stratification of the basin of Lake Superior. With respect to the useful metals, particularly copper and iron, it is undeniably the richest and most extensive locality of these metals on the globe. [54]