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204

Mechanical arts & Manufactures. "The Mexicans, when the Spaniards first arrived amongst them, had carpenters, masons, weavers & founders. The pyramids of Cholula are constructed of alternate strata of brick & clay. (2 Humbolt; 120.) Bricks of peculiar fabrication have been found in a cave in Maury County, in this state, and on the Mississippi, as well as on the waters of the Ohio. The matching of bricks presupposes the use of the trowel, the plumb?, the making of lime, & of the masonic art. The trowel presupposes metallurgy, fusion?, forges, and smithery. In the Valley of Tenochtitlan in Mexico, was a salt pit, in the time of Montezuma, about the year of our Lord 1579, where earthen vessels were used, similar to those seen at the United States' saline. Mr Bell saw at United States' saline, the fragments of large vessels, which had been composed of muscle shells and clay, the capacity of which must have been seventy or eight gallons. A copper mine was found some years ago on the Mississippi, below the falls of St. Anthony, where a large collection of mining tools were found several feet below the surface. Hence, probably, the ancient inhabitants on the waters of the Ohio, were furnished with copper utensils & ornaments, as well as from the mines of Chili and Peru. In Virginia