But, on the other hand, whilst the northern red man attained to his highest achievement in the production of the axe, the native of Central America could boast of important additions to his stock of tools. He possessed copper implements for tilling the fields, and knew the uses of the chisel. Besides, when he wished to impart to the copper a definite form, he showed a superior ingenuity. The northern Indian simply took a stone, and by physical force hammered the metal into the required shape. But the skilled workman of Tecoatega and Tezcuco, subjecting the native copper to the heat of the furnace, cast the woodcutter’s axe in a mould, as well as the bracelets and the fragile earrings that adorned the princesses of Motezuma. Therefore, in view of the recently increasing interest shown in archæological circles, respecting everything relating to Mexico, the writer deemed it worth while to revise the notes referred to. As to the fact that the early Mexicans used instruments of copper, there can be no doubt. The brevity of the statements respecting these instruments is nevertheless very perplexing. The accounts of the Spanish chroniclers, indeed, afford a certain degree of satisfaction, but they leave us with a desire for fuller information. We should have felt more grateful to these authorities if, out of the thousand and more chapters devoted to the glorious deeds of the “Castellanos and Predicadores,” they had written one in which they had introduced us to the Mexican work-shop, exhibiting the weaver, the paper-maker, the carpenter, the goldsmith, and the sculptor, and initiating us into the devices and methods respectively employed; describing the form and shape of the tools they used, and giving an account of all those little details which are indispensable for achieving any technical or artistical results. Yet, as it exists, the desired information is incomplete, and, for the present at least, we can only deplore its brevity. In looking for aid from other quarters we feel still more perplexed. No specimen of any copper or bronze tool, apparently, has been preserved, and we are thus prevented from determining whether the axes or chisels mentioned by the Spanish authors were of the same shape as ours, or whether the natives had contrived to give them a peculiar shape of their own. Finally, no definite hint is given whether the kind of copper metal, which they called “brass or bronze,” was copper with the natural admixtures of gold, silver, tin, or other tempering elements, or whether the Mexicans had themselves discovered the devices of hardening, and combined the elements in due conventional proportions.