That they were originally wrought, and not cast, is _à priori_ in the highest degree probable. On some parts of the shores of Lake Superior native copper occurs in great abundance, and would no doubt attract the attention of the early occupants of the country. Accustomed to the use of stone, they would at first regard the metal as merely a stone of peculiarly heavy nature, and on attempting to chip it or work it into shape would at once discover that it yielded to a blow instead of breaking, and that in fact it was a malleable stone. Of this ductile property the North American savage availed himself largely, and was able to produce spear-heads with sockets adapted for the reception of their shafts by merely hammering out the base of the spear-head and turning it over to form the socket, in the same manner as is so often employed in the making of iron tools. But though the great majority of the instruments hitherto found, if not all, have been hammered and not cast, it would appear that the process of melting copper was not entirely unknown. Squier and Davis have observed,[4] “that the metal appears to have been worked in all cases in a cold state. This is somewhat remarkable, as the fires upon the altars were sufficiently strong in some instances to melt down the copper implements and ornaments deposited upon them, and the fact that the metal is fusible could hardly have escaped notice.” That it did not altogether escape observation is shown by the evidence of De Champlain,[5] the founder of the city of Quebec. In 1610 he was joining a party of Algonquins, one of whom met him on his barque, and after conversation “tira d’un sac une pièce de cuivre de la longueur d’un pied qu’il me donna, le quel estoit fort beau et bien franc, me donnant à entendre qu’il en avoit en quantité là ou il l’avoit pris, qui estoit sur le bort d’une rivière proche d’un grand lac et qu’ils le prenoient par morceaux, et le faisant fondre le mettoient en lames, et avec des pierres le rendoient uny.” We have here, then, evidence of a Copper Age,[6] in comparatively modern times, during most of which period the process of fusing the metal was unknown. In course of time, however, this art was discovered, and had not European influences been brought to bear upon the country this discovery might, as in other parts of the world, have led to the knowledge of other fusible metals, and eventually to the art of manufacturing bronze—an alloy already known in Mexico and Peru.[7]