anterior to the discovery of America in the fifteenth century,”[269] etc. This conclusion he is assisted to by certain quotations from some of the old natives and from Claude Allouez. These convince him; but a little later on he quotes Alexander Henry’s mention of his visit to the Ontonagon, who says: “I found this river chiefly remarkable for the abundance of virgin copper which is on its banks and in its neighbourhood. The copper presented itself to the eye in masses of various weight. The Indians showed me one of twenty pounds. They were used to manufacture this metal into spoons and bracelets for themselves.”[270] If they made bracelets and spoons, they probably made other articles, “melting the lumps and spreading it in sheets” to smooth it with stones, as the chief described to Champlain. The Chiriquians seem to have possessed a skill in metallurgical operations unsurpassed by any other people on the continent. Whether they used gold dust in quills, and T shapes of tin or copper for currency as did the Mexicans, does not appear, but they were skilled in metal-working. They understood smelting, alloying, and plating, and apparently were extremely skilful at casting. As before noted, no weapons or implements have been found of metal, all the metal objects being ornaments, and “almost exclusively,” says Holmes, “pendent ornaments.” “They were, for the most part, cast in moulds, and in nine cases out of ten represent animal forms. A few bells are found, all of which are bronze. Pieces formed of alloyed metal are usually washed or plated with gold.”[271] Many of these valuable relics of the past have been disposed of for their money value and duly melted up to be made into something modern. The gold is usually alloyed with copper in varying proportions, though pure metals were also used. From the fact that the alloy is so variable it would seem that the combination already existed before it came into the Chiriquian hands; that is, it was perhaps a natural combination.