furnace producing nickel on a large scale,) is the object of this paper. In order to understand the circumstances which led to the discovery of nickel at the Gap mine, reference must be made to the previous mining of copper at that point. The earliest mining operations recorded in Lancaster County, within

kettles. Emphasis is placed on "copper" for it is impor- tant to note that no tea kettle made of brass has been identified as the pro- duct of a Pennsylvania coppersmith in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. This circumstance is difficult to explain since many were made of brass in

THE GAP COPPER MINES, Through the kindness of Dr. Wm. H. Egle, State Librarian, which I thankfully acknowledge, I am enabled to give from the official records in the Land Department at Harrisburg the earliest ownership of the land constituting the Gap mines property. The first paper is endorsed "An