es of ore and iron are transported over it daily.

All the hills and mountains surrounding Lake Superior, abound in
valuable minerals of which copper is the most abundant. It exists in
every variety of form. According to the opinion of the lamented
Houghton, this region contains the most extensive copper mines in the
known world. The native copper boulder discovered by the traveler
Henry in the bed of the Ontonagon river, and now in Washington,
originally weighed thirty-eight hundred pounds. A copper mass of the
same material, found near Copper Harbor, weighed twelve hundred
pounds. At Copper Falls, there is a vein of solid ore which measures
nine feet in depth, and seven and a half inches in thickness. At Eagle
river a boulder was found weighing seventeen hundred pounds. The
number of mining companies in operation on the American shore is
upward of a hundred.

The Minnesota mine, fifteen miles from Ontonagon, during the year
ending January 1, 1857, produced 3,718,403 pounds of copper. The Cliff
mine during the year, produced 3,291,229 pounds of copper. The Portage
Lake District, including Isle Royale, Portage, Huron, Quincy and
Pewabic shipped 539 tons of copper in 1857.

The Lake Superior miners estimate the total shipment of copper mineral
from the lake during the year 1858, at 6,008 tons, of an average
purity of 67 per cent--making the product of ingot copper about 4,000
tons, worth in the market at present $1,840,000. Estimating the
population of the copper region at 6,500 persons, this gives an annual
product of about $280 for each man, woman and child. The shipments
were as follows: From Keweenaw Point 2,180 tons; from Portage Lake
1,152 tons; from Ontonagon District 2,676 tons; total 6,008 tons.

The extent and importance of the copper mines of Superior, in relation
to the general trade in that metal, may be estimated by the following
account of the amount of pure copper produced in other parts of the
world. The United Kingdom of Great Britain 14,465 tons, Norway 7,200
tons, Russia 4,000, Mexico 500, Hesse Cassel 500, Hartz Mountains 212;
Sweden 2,000, Hungary 2,000, East Germany 443; making a total, out of
America, of 30,820 tons. The single District of Ontonagon can produce
as much copper as the entire Kingdom of Great Britain. The copper
mines of the United States, are doing their part as effectually in
adding to the solid wealth of the country, as the gold mines of
California, or the silver mines of the