which must have grown, flourished, and died since the mound of earth upon which it stood was thrown out.  Mr. Knapp discovered, in 1848, a deserted mine or excavation, in which, under eighteen feet of rubbish, he found a mass of native copper weighing over six tons, resting on billets of oak supported by sleepers of the same material.  The ancient miners had evidently raised the mass about five feet, and then abandoned it.  Around it, among the accumulation of rubbish, were found a large number of stone hammers, and some copper chisels, but no utensils of iron.  In some instances, explorers have been led to select valuable mining-sites by the abundance of these stone hammers found about the ground.  Traces of tumuli have also been found in these regions, which would seem to indicate some connection between these ancient miners and the mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley,—­especially as in those western mounds copper rings have frequently been found.

The economical value of the Lake fisheries is considerable.  The total catch of white-fish, trout, and pickerel, the only kinds which are packed, to any extent, was estimated for 1859 at 110,000 barrels, worth about $880,000.  These find a market through the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois; besides a large quantity which are consumed in a fresh state, in the Lake cities and towns.

The White-Fish, (Coregonus Albus,) which is the most valuable of all, somewhat resembles the shad in appearance and taste.  It is taken in seines and other nets,—­never with the hook.  The white-fish of Lake Superior are larger, fatter, and of finer flavor than any others.  In this lake they have sometimes been taken weighing fifteen pounds.  At the Sault they are taken in the rapids with dip-nets, by the Chippewas who live in that vicinity, and are of very fine flavor; those of Detroit River and the Straits of Mackinac are also very good; but when you go south, into Lake Erie or Michigan, the quality of the fish deteriorates.  Few travellers ever taste a white-fish in perfection.  As eaten upon hotel-tables at Buffalo or Chicago, it is a poor and tasteless fish.  But, as found at the old French boarding-houses at Mackinac or the Sault, or, better still, cooked fresh from the icy waters on the rocky shores of Superior, it is, to our thinking, the best fish that swims,—­better than the true salmon or brook-trout.  The famous fish once so plenty in Otsego Lake, but now nearly extinct, was a Coregonus, and first cousin to this one of the Great Lakes.

So Sebago Lake, near Portland, some fifty years ago, boasted of a delicious red-fleshed trout, of large size, which has in these latter times, from netting or some other improper fishing, nearly or quite disappeared from those waters, leaving upon the palates of old anglers the remembrance of a flavor higher and richer than anything now remaining.