native metal

The Copper Indians set a great value on their native metal even to this day; and prefer it to iron, for almost every use except that of a hatchet, a knife, and an awl: for these three necessary implements, copper makes but a very poor substitute.

Whether brass, however, is found as a native metal or not, cannot be ascertained with any surety.

The native metal crystallizes in the cubic system, the octahedron being the commonest form, but other and complex combinations have been observed.

Iron pyrites, however, is of greater practical importance, being in some districts exceedingly rich, and, next to the native metal, is the most prolific source of gold.

Ores and Minerals.—The principal source of bismuth is the native metal, which is occasionally met with as a mineral, usually in reticulated and arborescent shapes or as foliated and granular masses with a crystalline fracture.