Book Description

Excerpt from Annual Review of the Iron Mining and Other Industries of the Upper Peninsula: For the Year Ending Dec; 31, 1881 The Jesuit Fathers were the first in modern times to intimate to the world the existence of native copper on the shores of Lake Superior. In the seventeenth century - more than two hundred years ago - impelled by a burning zeal for the salvation of souls, these devoted and intelligent Frenchmen, cross in hand, pushed boldly out into the savage wilderness of the great Northwest. These men were something more than mere zealots; they were good geographers, topographers and naturalists; they were apt observers, and possessed the skill and industry necessary to render their discoveries of value to mankind. Among other things, they carefully noted, as they navigated the great lake in their frail canoes, copper lying on the shores. and in the possession of the superstitious savages; Init it is doubtful whether these holy Fathers understood much about geology, or whence the float copper came. The Indians seem never to have made practical use of this valuable metal, but regarded the copper in their possession as something sacred. At a very late day, since mining became an industry on the lake, the same superstitious reverence prevailed. In this respect they were far inferior in intelligence to that pre-historic race known as the ancient miners. The first published account of the existence of copper and other minerals on Lake Superior, is to be found in "Lagarde's book," which appeared in Paris in 1636; it contained many things which would be of interest to the general reader at this time, but we shall have to be content with a few brief quotations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.