“Lying immediately over or on the forehead of the body were found three large circular bosses, or ornaments for a sword-belt or buckler; they are composed of copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver.  The fronts are slightly convex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and they measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each.  On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates by which they were fastened to the leather.  Two small pieces of leather were found lying between the plates of one of the bosses; they resemble the skin of a mummy, and seem to have been preserved by the salts of copper.  Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appears to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard; it is six inches in length, two in breadth, and weighs one ounce.  It seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which remain in the silver.

“Two or three pieces of copper tube were also found, filled with iron rust.  These pieces, from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword.  No signs of the sword itself were discovered, except the rust above mentioned.

“The mound had every appearance of being as old as any in the neighborhood, and was at the first settlement of Marietta covered with large trees.  It seems to have been made for this single personage, as this skeleton alone was discovered.  The bones were very much decayed, and many of them crumbled to dust upon exposure to the air.”

Mr. Squier says, “These articles have been critically examined, and it is beyond doubt that the copper bosses were absolutely plated, not simply overlaid, with silver.  Between the copper and the silver exists a connection such as, it seems to me, could only be produced by heat; and if it is admitted that these are genuine relics of the Mound Builders, it must, at the same time, be admitted that they possessed the difficult art of plating one metal upon another.  There is but one alternative, viz., that they had occasional or constant intercourse with a people advanced in the arts, from whom these articles were obtained.  Again, if Dr. Hildreth is not mistaken, oxydized iron or steel was also discovered in connection with the above remains, from which also follows the extraordinary conclusion that the Mound Builders were acquainted with the use of iron, the conclusion being, of course, subject to the improbable alternative already mentioned.”

In connection with this subject, we would refer to the interesting evidences that the copper mines of the shore of Lake Superior had been at some very remote period worked by the Mound Builders.  There were found deep excavations, with rude ladders, huge masses of rock broken off, also numerous stone tools, and all the evidences of extensive and long-continued labor.  It is even said that the great Ontonagon mass of pure copper which is now in Washington was excavated by these ancient miners, and that when first found its surface showed numerous marks of their tools.