| | | [12] The Jesuit Mission that was placed at Sault Ste. Marie, at | | the entrance of Lake Superior was, during the seventeenth and | | eighteenth centuries, one of the most important and influential | | of the missionary establishments in North America. Many of the | | Fathers who were attached to it had received a good mathematical | | education and were capable of making accurate geographical | | surveys. An excellent plan of Lake Superior and its islands was | | made by them in 1670, and the coast lines and bays were traced | | over a distance exceeding fifteen hundred miles. Amongst the | | distinguished men who worked at the mission were the Fathers | | Jogues, Allouez, Mesnard (who lost his way and perished in the | | forest when travelling across the Kee-wai-wona promontory), | | Dablon, and the well-known and devoted missionary, Jacques | | Marquette. | | | | [13] At Marietta, there still exists an ancient Indian mound or | | tumulus, about thirty feet high. It is situated near the | | south-east limits of the inclosures. When I saw it, it was under | | the care of the local authorities. | | | | [14] Morton’s Crania Americana, pp. 221. | | | | [15] It is known that a communication between the south-western | | extremity of Lake Superior and the Mississippi Valley, existed | | from an early time. When I was at Toronto, Professor Daniel | | Wilson, to whom I was indebted for much information upon subjects | | relating to American archæology, told me that it had been | | ascertained that the copper found in these mounds, was of the same | | character as that in the Lake Superior Mines: so that the question | | of its origin was practically settled. It thus seems probable that | | some of the small lumps of pure copper found in the forests and on | | the shores of the lake, near the Kee-wai-wona promontory, were | | brought into Ohio. | | | | A mound that was opened near Lake Ontario, and whose contents I | | examined, was stated to have been twelve feet high. Within it were | | about twenty skeletons, some coarse pottery, a number of arrow | | heads made of a hard flinty stone and several flat rectangular | | stones, pierced with one or two holes, which had been used as | | breast ornaments, possibly denoting a certain rank. There were |