Note 116 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

To-day, I got a piece of native copper from the Upper Lake. They find it there almost quite pure; so that it does not want melting over again, but is immediately fit for working. Father Charlevoix116 speaks of it in his History of New-France. One of the Jesuits at Montreal, who had been at the place where this metal is got, told me, that it is generally found near the mouths of rivers, and that there are pieces of native copper too heavy for a single man to lift up. The Indians there say, that they formerly found a piece of about seven feet long, and near four feet thick, all of pure copper. As it is always found in the ground near the mouths of rivers, it is probable that the ice or water carried it down from a mountain; but, notwithstanding the careful search that has been made, no place has been found, where the metal lies in any great quantity together.