If there had been a wide knowledge of copper and other metal-working in the South-west in the olden time, there ought to be signs of it in the ruins other than an oven, and even the latter has been rarely found. Coronado and his chroniclers, Espejo, and all the list of early writers on that region, never, so far as I have been able to note, mention copper or any other metal articles. In fact, from the testimony of literature, history, and actual excavation among the ruins so far as carried at present, we should conclude that none of the people of that region knew about metals or the manner of working them before the year 1540.[260] New Jersey also furnished the Amerinds some copper and those living in the Atlantic region had ornaments, arrow-heads, and pipes supposed to have been made from it or from Lake Superior copper. Brinton attributes the scarcity of specimens in our collections to “its being bought up and melted by the whites, rather than to its limited employment.”[261] A few examples have been found, but if they had been plentiful there should be discovered many implements antedating the arrival of the whites. On Brinton’s hypothesis it would be necessary to assume that there were few made before the coming of the whites or they could not have been so easily bought up. As a matter of fact, the finds in copper articles compared with the area occupied are astonishingly few, if the natives turned off the amount of work some writers would have us believe. [Illustration: COPPERS FROM THE NORTH-WEST COAST. These are made of thin sheets of copper, and grow valuable by sale or exchange, according to peculiar customs. Some rise as high as $5000 or $6000 Painted design in black, representing a sea monster with bear’s head Painted design representing a hawk ]