and a few hardy northern esculents. Small cereal grains-such as oats, barley, and rye-will do well here as in Canada; and Indian corn of the northern varieties, in places not too much exposed to the chill breezes of the lake, thrives and ripens. English grasses have not yet been cultivated, but they will undoubtedly thrive as well on the south shore of Lake Superior, as in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The native grasses are abundant and good, but are limited to small natural prairies or to dried up ponds. Judging from the luxuriant growth of forest trees-such as the maple, yellow birch, and other trees common to Maine and New Brunswick-we should judge that the soil was as good on the shores of Lake Superior as in that State and province.

Those who have only viewed the immediate coast of the lake, especially that now densely covered with a tangled growth of small, stunted spruce and fir trees, would be likely to undervalue the agricultural resources of that region. They should remember that the cold air from the lake affects the vegetation only near its shores, and that farther inland the temperature more resembles that of Canada and the northern parts of New Hampshire and New York. This is not only shown by the native forest trees and the flowering plants, but also, where clearings have been made to a sufficient extent, by the agricultural produce raised upon the soil.

The forests also are filled with excellent timber for building purposes; and, where the growth is of mixed trees, such as sugar-maple, yellow birch, and pines, the white and yellow pines are of large dimensions, and furnish good lumber for sawing into boards, planks, and deals. Though there is little prospect at present of sending sawed boards from Lake Superior to the lower lake country, the time will come when this valuable timber will become of commercial importance; and that time will arrive the sooner if the ship canal now proposed at the Sault de Sainte Marie shall be constructed within any reasonable time.

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The northern or British shore of Lake Superior has as yet been but little explored, either geologically or for minerals. One mine of blende, or sulphuret of zinc, richly mixed with spangles of native silver, and a vein of sulphuret of copper, have been discovered at Prince's bay, on the north shore, not far from Isle Royale. I know not what progress has been made in developing the ores of this mine, but at the time when I examined it, in 1847, it gave promise of rich returns. a general thing the copper on the northern shores is mineralized by sulphur, and occurs as yellow copper pyrites, or as gray or black sulphurets of copper, while the copper on the south shore and on Isle Royale is mostly in the metallic state, and all the valuable workingmines are there opened for the native metal. This is a remarkable reversion of the usual laws of mineral veins, and was first discovered and pointed out by myself, and the first mines for native copper were opened by my advice and in accordance with my surveys, in 1844, as before stated. This remarkable region has certainly surprised both geologists and miners by its wonderful lodes of native copper, and by the lumps of pure silver which have been opened and brought to light by enterprising companies and skilful miners.

One of the most remarkable associations of metals is here observed in the intermixture of pure silver with pure copper, the two metals being perfectly united without any alloying of one with the other. This singular condition of these two metals has puzzled chemists and mineralogists; and the solution of the problem of their mode of deposition in the veins is still undiscovered. It is obvious, from experiment, and from all we know of the affinities of metals for each other, that the native copper was not injected in a molten state into the veins. Although I have discovered the manner in which the copper veins were probably formed, I am far from having learned that of the silver, for we know of no volatile salt, or combination of that metal. This subject, which has occupied much of my time for several years, will be explained more fully at a future time, in a paper addressed to scientific men, as it does not form a suitable subject for a mere popular essay like the present communication; and, as before observed, is still an uncompleted study.

The rocks known to belong to the cupriferous formation of Lake Superior are all of igneous formation, or have been thrown up from the unknown interior of the globe in a molten state, and in long rents, having a somewhat crescentic shape, with the curve toward the north and west; the radius of the arc not being far from thirty miles in length on Keweenaw Point. The average width of this belt is not more than five miles, while its length is not less than two hundred miles. The Keweenaw belt of trap runs by the Ontonagon river, narrowing to only a mile in width in some parts of its course, and then widening rapidly as it extends into Wisconsin.

On the Ontonagon river it is about four miles wide; and it is there highly cupriferous, several important veins, now wrought by mining companies, having been discovered by the miners in their employ, on this river and in its vicinity. The Minnesota mine has been, thus far, the most successful of those opened upon this part of the trap range. It is remarked by all the geologists and miners who have examined these rocks, that the copper ore lies in the amygdaloidal variety of them; and that the veins of native copper are pinched out into narrow sheets in the harder trap-rock which overlies the amygdaloid. This fact was first noticed by Mr. Alger and myself in the geological survey of Nova Scotia, made by us in 1827; and the private geological surveys which I made on Keweenaw Point, in 1844 and 1845, proved it to be true also in that region; so that it is a law now well known to the miners upon the Lake Superior land district. It was discovered, also, that the copper dies out in the veins when they cut through sandstone rocks. The reason for this I have discovered, and proved by experiment and observation, and shall farther verify when ordered to complete my government survey of the mineral lands of the United States in Michigan.

Much may be expected from the explorations now going on upon the northern shore of the lake, under the authority of the Canadian government, since the wisdom of that province has perceived the importance of rendering her researches and investigations into the mineral treasures of her soil the most effectual and complete, and has consequently intrusted them to men the most thoroughly competent to the task.

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Experienced miners are often good observers, and to them we owe much valuable observation; but they are not often sufficiently acquainted with geology and mineralogy to enable them to judge of the value of a mine in a country with which they are not familiar; and they cannot describe what they discover so as to make their observations intelligible or valuable to others. Miners are good assistants, but poor principals, in any geological survey. Hence the British government employs her most learned and practical geologists in her surveys in Canada, and allows them time and means to accomplish in a proper manner their important work.

On the northern shores of the lake, as before observed, we find most commonly the ores of copper; while in the trap-rocks, on the south side, the metal occurs in its pure metallic state. The ores which have been found on Lake Huron already promise to give ample profits to the owners of the mine; and other localities are known, where there is a reasonable prospect of successful mining, on the northern borders of Lake Superior.

Trade will spring up between us and our Canadian neighbors as soon as their shore becomes inhabited, and, it is to be hoped, will prove of reciprocal advantage to the two countries.

C. T. JACKSON.

THE LAKES.-GENERAL VIEW.

This is a brief and rapid outline of a country, and a system of waters, strangely adapted by the hand of Providence to become the channel of an inland navigation, unequalled and incomparable the world over; through regions the richest of the whole earth in productions of all kinds-productions of the field, productions of the forest, productions of the waters, productions of the bowels of the earth-regions overflowing with cereal and animal wealth, abounding in the most truly valuable, if not most precious, metals and minerals— lead, iron, copper, coal-beyond the most favored countries of the globe; regions which would, but for these waters, have been as inaccessible as the steppes of Tartary or Siberia, and the value of the productions whereof must have been swallowed up in the expense of their transportation.

And this country, these waters, hitherto so little regarded, so singularly neglected, the importance of which does not appear to be so much as suspected by one man in ten thousand of the citizens of this great republic, is certainly destined to excel in absolute and actual wealth, agricultural, mineral, and commercial, the aggregate of the other portions of the United States, how thrifty, how thriving, how energetical and industrious soever they may be.

Of these lakes and rivers, during the year 1851, the commerce, foreign and coastwise, was estimated at three hundred and twenty-six million five hundred and ninety-three thousand three hundred and thirty-five dollars; transacted by means of an enrolled tonnage of seventy-seven thousand and sixty-one tons of steam, and one hundred

and thirty-eight thousand nine hundred and fourteen tons of sail, or an aggregate licensed tonnage of two hundred and fifteen thousand nine hundred and seventy-five tons.

In the prosecution of this commerce, it would appear, as nearly as can be ascertained, that there was entered an aggregate at all the lake ports together, of 9,469,506 tons during the season; and cleared at the same ports 9,456,346 tons-showing an average of nearly fortyfour entrances of the whole lake tonnage during the season.

Of the above amount of commerce the value of $314,473,458 went coastwise, and $12,119,877 Canadian or foreign.

The returns of the coasting trade are, it is true, very imperfect and unsatisfactory, as are also the estimates founded upon them; but, as approximations only can be arrived at under the circumstances, the best use has been made of the returns received; and the results arrived at cannot but appear strange to those not immediately conversant with the character of the lake trade.

According to these estimates the coasting trade is divided into exports, $132,017,470; and imports, $182,455,988; showing a difference of $50,438,518, when there should have been a perfect balance. This discrepancy arises from a higher rate of valuation at the place of importation than at that of exportation, or vice versa. Products of agriculture, the forests, and the mines, are easily valued at a correct rate; whereas one great division of articles of importation, classed as merchandise, including everything from the finest jewelry and choicest silks to the most bulky and cheapest articles of grocery, can scarcely be reduced to a correct money value.

The discrepancy, then, arises from the valuation of the articles per ton being fixed at too high a figure at one port, or too low at another. Which valuation is the more correct, it is impossible to ascertain under the present system of regulations.

Taking the lowest estimate, the actual money value of the coastwise exports of these lakes is $132,000,000, in round numbers, being the mere value of the property passing over the lakes, without including passage money, passengers carried, cost of vessels, expenses of crews, or anything in the least degree extraneous.

The amount of grain alone which was transported during the season of 1851, amounted to 1,962,729 barrels of flour, and 8,119,169 bushels of wheat-amounting to what equals an aggregate of 17,932,807 bushels of wheat; 7,498,264 bushels of corn; 1,591,758 bushels of oats; and 360,172 bushels of barley; in all 27,382,801 bushels of cereal produce. This branch of traffic, it is evident, must continually increase with the increasing influx of immigration, and the bringing into cultivation of the almost unbounded tracts of the very richest soil, on which the forest is now growing, which surround the lakes on almost every side. And the like may be predicated of the exploitation of the mines, the prosecution of the fisheries, and the bringing to light of all natural resourcesfacilities of transportation causing immigration, immigration improving cultivation and production, and these two originating commerce, and multiplying a thousand-fold the wealth, the rank, and the happiness of the confederacy.