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In a recent paper* Prof. F. W. Putnam gives an account, with figures, of several objects made of wood and covered with copper.lu a later report t is an account of copper objects sbeatlied with silver, a pendant of copper sheathed with gold, ear ornaments of copper sheathed with silver and meteoric iron, and bracelets of copper sheathed with silver.Since that time Prof. Putimm has found many other specimens from Ohio, and calls attention to Atwater's statement, in Archaiologia Americana, describing objects as being overlaid with silver.Numerous specimens have been discovered by others, notably by Mr. Warren K. Moorehead, in his explorations of mounds near Chillicothe, Ohio.These examples are quite suflicient to show that the American aborigines in the Mississippi valley and in South America had the art of cold-hammering copper, of beating it to overlie and fit upon a warped or curved surface, and of turning the edges under.This process must not be confounded with the mere hammering out of imj)lements, nor with that other process of making a sheet of copper as thin and uniform as a ship's sheathing and then producing figures by rubbing or pressure.Some doubt had been expressed concerning the genuineness of such work, but Mr. Cushing's late experiments]: change the status of the problem.But of the overlaying and turning OVEBLAYimr WITH COPPER-MASON.VOL.XVII.To compare with the overhiying of wood and bone by sheet copper, discovered in the mounds and described by Putnam, tlie U. S. National Museum has received from Lieut.G. T. Emmons, U. S. IS^avy., two figures of humming birds in wood, well carved and painted red.Illustrations of these are given below.Each wing and the tail of each bird is overlaid with a covering of sheet copper, pressed down to fit and turned under at the margins so as to be held fast.The surfaces are adorned with the conventional wing and eye signs of the Haidas.Esj^ecial attention is called to the carving on the copper.Tlie furrows and ridges are all cut with steel tools.The effects are produced by first making a nar-
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