lieved to exist. Every stroke of
the pick cost tenfold more than in populated districts; every disaster
delayed the operations for weeks and months.

The opening of the Saut Canal has changed all this and added a
wonderful impetus to the business, the mining interests, and the
development of the Lake Superior country. Nearly one hundred different
vessels, steam and sail, have been engaged the past season in its
trade, and the number of these is destined largely to increase year
by year, an indication of the growth of business and the opening up of
the country. For the growth in the copper interest we have only to
refer to the shipments from that region year by year. These, in gross,
are as follows:

1853 2,535 tons.
1854 3,500 "
1855 4,544 "
1856 5,357 "
1857 6,094 "
1658 6,025 "
1859 6,245 "

The same facts of development would hold generally true, with regard
to the other industrial interests of that vast country.

It remains yet almost wholly "a waste, howling wilderness." At
Marquette, Portage Lake, Copper Harbor, Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, and
Ontonagon, and the mines adjacent, are the only places where the
primeval forests have given place to the enterprise of man, and these
in comparison with the whole extent of territory embraced in this
region, are but mere insignificant patches. What this country may
become years hence, it would defy all speculations now to predict, but
there seems no reason to doubt that it will exceed the most sanguine
expectations.

The copper region is divided into three districts, viz., the
Ontonagon, the most northern, the Keweenaw Point, the most eastern,
and the Portage Lake, lying mostly below and partially between the
range of the two. In the first are situated the Minnesota, the
Rockland, the National, and a multitude of other mines of lesser note,
profit, or promise. In the Cliff, the Copper Falls, and others. In the
last are the Pewabic, Quincy, Isle Royale, Portage, Franklin, and
numerous others. Each district has some peculiarities of product, the
first developing the masses, while the latter are more prolific in
vein-rock, the copper being scattered throughout the rock.

There have been since 1845 no less than 116 copper-mining companies
organized under the general law of our State. The amount of capital
invested and now in use, or which has been paid out in explorations
and improvements, and lost, is estimated by good judges