re the mountain itself is visible. On the north shore the
Paps, two elevated mountains near the entrance of Neepigon Bay, at one
time appear like hour glasses, and at another like craters, emitting
long columns of smoke, which gradually settles around their cones.

The mines and minerals of the northwest constitute the most striking
feature of the country, and at the present time one of the great
sources of its wealth.

The centre of the mining country is called the Superior country, or
the northern peninsula of Michigan, but there is no reason to believe
it is confined to this region. Coal and iron, the most valuable of all
minerals are found in various places in the northwest. The principal
and most valuable minerals found west of Mackinaw, are iron, copper,
and lead. A general view of the mineral region may be found in Owen's
Geological Survey of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Superior. Great
beds of iron are found in ridges or cliffs, some of which rise up to
an immense height. Some of these ore-beds of Lake Superior are fifteen
feet in thickness, and one of them contains iron enough to supply the
world for ages. Above them are immense forests, suitable for charcoal.

The discovery of the iron mountains and mines of Lake Superior was
made in 1846, but they were not fully developed until the year 1855,
when the ship canal at Saut St. Mary was completed. The mines are from
three to sixteen miles from Marquette, a thriving village of upward of
one thousand inhabitants, overlooking the lake, about one hundred and
forty miles above the Saut. The mine nearest the lake is about two and
a half miles distant from Marquette, and bears the name of Eureka. The
ore is said to be of surpassing richness, and yields an iron of the
best quality, adapted to cutlery. The Jackson iron mountain, and the
Cleveland iron mountain, are fourteen and sixteen miles distant. They
send to Marquette an aggregate of one thousand tons per week. These
mountains rise gradually to the height of six or seven hundred feet,
and are a solid mass of iron ore, yielding from 50 to 60 per cent. of
the best iron. The New England iron mountain is two and a half miles
beyond the Cleveland mountain, and abounds with ore of equal richness.
A mile or two further is the Burt mountain, and the same may be said
of this, both as it regards quantity and quality, as of the others. A
railroad has been constructed from Marquette to the iron regions, and
immense quantiti