As to the copper and iron mines of Lake Superior, many dabblers in fancy stocks are but too well acquainted with them, and many burned fingers testify against those investments of capital.  Still, the amount of mineral is immense, and the quality of the purest; and these mines will no doubt pay well, if worked with skill and capital.

Since 1845, one hundred and sixteen copper-mining companies have been organized in Michigan, under the general law of the State; and the amount of capital invested in them is estimated at six millions of dollars.  Most of this is lost.  On the other hand, the “Cliff” and “Minnesota” mines have returned over two millions of dollars in dividends.  The latter is said to have paid, in 1858, a dividend of $300,000 on a paid-up capital of $66,000.  Mining is a lottery, and this brilliant prize cannot conceal the fact that blanks fall to the lot of by far the more numerous part of the ticket-holders.

The opening of the Sault Canal has very much aided in developing the resources of the Upper Peninsula.  In 1845, the Lake Superior fleet consisted of three schooners.  In 1860, one hundred vessels passed through the canal, loaded with supplies for the mining country, and returned with cargoes of copper and iron ore and fish.  The copper is smelted in Detroit, Cleveland, and Boston.  In 1859, 3,000 tons were landed in Detroit, producing from 60 to 70 per cent of ingot copper, being among the purest ores in the world.

The iron ore of this region is also of extraordinary purity; and for all purposes where great strength and tenacity are required, it is unrivalled, as the following table, showing the relative strength, per square inch, as compared with other kinds of iron, will prove:—­

Best Swedish ...... 58.184
English cable...... 59.105
Essex Co., N.Y..... 59.962
Lancaster, Pa...... 58.661
Common English .... 30.000
Best Russia ....... 76.069
Lake Superior ..... 89.582

With such iron to be had of American manufacture, why should we use a rotten English article for car-wheels and boiler-plates, and so sacrifice the lives of thousands every year?  Because, by an unwise legislation, the foreign article is made a little cheaper to the American consumer.

There are ten large forges in operation in Michigan, with a capital of over two millions of dollars; and the shipments of ore from Marquette in 1859 were over 75,000 tons.  The country back of Marquette is full of mountains of iron ore, yielding 60 or 70 per cent, of pure metal, sufficient to supply the world for ages.

Traces have been found, through the whole of this copper-region, of a rude species of mining practised here long before it became known to the whites.  The existing races of Indians had not even a tradition by whom it was done; and the excavations were unknown to them, until pointed out by the white man.  Messrs. Foster and Whitney, in their survey of the copper-lands, found a pine-stump ten feet in circumference,