The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-05-21
PREHISTORIC MINING IN
MICHIGAN.

so large that they must be cut il
piece with chisels.
All the more important mines arr
situated Oh the ancient workings of {
prehistoric race. They seem to have
been ignorant of the fact that cope
could be melted. for they left behind
them the fragments too small to ust
and the masses too heavy to lift
Every day they subjected it to a tenn,
perature nearly high enough, without
making discovery which would have
lifted them out of the Stone Age into
the Bronze Age, and perhaps have
enabled them to survive the struggle
in which they Eerished. They must
have been very numerous, and have
reached the point of development
where they were capable OF organ
zing industry.
In.sle Royale. near the Minong
Mine, their pits, excavated to q depth
of from ten to twenty lect in The solid
rock, cover an area OF from 800 to
400 teet wide and more than a mile
and hall in length. The labor ex-
pended here cannot have been much
short OF that involved il building 8
pyramid. Isle Roysle is ten miles
from the nearest land, and is incspa-
bic of producing food, SO that ell cup
plies except fab Dust have been
brought from some distant point.
Their excavations could of course
never 60 below the point at which
water would accumulate. Their
hammers, frequently to the number
of several thousand, are found in
heaps where they were evidently
placed at the end OF the season. As
no graves or evidences of babitations
are found, we can hardly doubt that
the ancient miners lived south of the
great-iakes, and made yearly jour-
neyings with fleets of canoes to the
copper mines. The aggregate
amount of the metal which they car
risd of must have been very great,
and it has, ] believe. been generally
thsught that the copper implements
OF the ancient Mexicans came from
tnis source. 81. Chsrnay in q recent
nual Der Of the North american seems
to think that the Mexicsns reduced
copper from its ores. A chemical
analysis of their batchets would solve
tina question, for Lake superior
copper is SO tree from alloys as TO
be unmistskable.
The superintendent Of the old |
Mine in Ontonsgon county
kindly took NE to the top of a cliff |
wheTe three Cornish "trlbuters"
working not TOR wages but
for y share of the produc.-hsd
cleared cut one of the ancient pits
basin. This went to establish the
fact that the lead-producing and cryt-
tslline action had been directly con-
nected with the vein system in all
parts of the lead basin; that the same
force which had been exerted to fill
The vein system Ia one basin of lime.
stone bad duplicated that system in
he adjacent basins, and the physical
outline Of the ore wss en- index OF its
and photographed po.
iition in the basin. Afterwards was
ed to the conclusion that the north
md south veins were the positive or
male veins, and the esst and west the
negative or female veins. The north
md south veins were few in number,
be east and vest veins many. and
be north and south veins always
ointed towards the basins of the east
nd west veins. This law is noticed
q the animal and vegetable king
oms. in the sheep and goat families,
nd in the cherry and apple trees.
&c males being in the minority. In
pplylng this law to iron ores We sup
ose the magnetic ores are the posi-
Te Or male ores. other varieties the
egatIve or female ores. Ia the silver
elds the Comstock, being a north
nd south vein, would be a pos itve
: male vein, and the east and west Q
Gins Of New Mexico and Old Mesi. o
le negative or female veins.
The great vein known "a the San Z
letro, IN the town OF Hidalgo del 8
arral, Is an east and west vein; asc c
le largest and richest mine worked
the Spanish mining town Of Inde,
! the state of Durango, Mexico, and :
nown as the Del Aqua water mine), 2
an east and west vein. | am not 2
Efficiently acquainted with the '
purses Of the veins in the mountain v
ates to apply this Law of sex to the
sin system of the hume Gus silver
I'D gcId-bearing fields, yet have q
entitled it in the vein system OF the I
pper and lower lead fields of the y
asin of the Mississippi. and feel as. .
red that it can be applied to sll the q
miles of veins which, ga a rule, are o
.gregated around a central knob or 2
Oofa, which terms the wster-ebsd of l
diviGual families OF veins, and g
hich families as aggregated q
rm the great stellar silver belt from a
ontsns south through New and Old s
exico, and that by close observation
e explorer and miner might profit L
: its application.