310 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



that the whole course of operations in that region has by no means been so 

 profitable as would else appear still the history of legitimate mining opera- 

 tions affords no other example of such an extraordinary development of the 

 mineral wealth of a country. Nine years ago the entire southern shore of 

 Lake Superior, nearly equal to the sea-coast of New England, was an unbroken 

 wilderness, save where the missionary had collected a small band of natives 

 into a settlement, or the Ojibways had formed their camping-grounds during 

 the fisliing season. Yet that district promises for this year shipments of cop- 

 per equal in amount to one third of the entire produce of the English mines 

 during the same period mines, the productiveness of which is increased to 

 the highest possible limit by the science and experience of centuries, a profu- 

 sion of capital, cheap labor, and the market of immense manufacturing dis- 

 tricts, and, in fact, of the world. 



The imagination hardly dares conceive the results of another nine years' 

 operations on Lake Superior, now that the difficulties incident to the opening 

 a new country and to the establishment of a new commercial interest have 

 been overcome, and mining placed upon a firm, scientific, and industrial basis. 

 In considering the great prospective increase of the mining interests in ques- 

 tion, it must not be forgotten that the explorations of each successive year, 

 beside developing new veins and deposits upon land already occupied by com- 

 panies, are extending continually the limits of both the copper and iron pro- 

 ducing districts. At first, but a few points upon the Kevveenaw Peninsula, 

 and a spot or two near the Ontonagon, were known. Now the entire range 

 from Copper Harbor to some distance west of the Ontonagon has passed into 

 the hands of mining companies. Last season the advanced posts had reached 

 Agogebic Lake, and their labors had so much of success that they have now 

 gone beyond that lake, and new companies are forming at this very time to 

 commence upon that part of the range ; and that, too, with prospects as en- 

 couraging as those upon many locations now considered of established value. 

 We also hear of successful explorations still further "West. N. Y. Tribune. 



Since the writing of the above, nearly complete returns from the various 

 Lake Superior mines have been received, and the amount of copper produced 

 exceeds the estimate by more than a thousand tons. The quantity mined and 

 sent to market, or in a state ready for shipment in the various districts, is as 

 follows: In the Ontonagon district, 2,190 tons; in Keewenaw district, 2,225 

 tons ; in Portage Lake districts, 345 tons; making a total of 4,790^ tons, or 

 9,581,000 Ibs. of copper as the total yield of the range for 1855. This, at the 

 present prices, is worth over $1,600,000. 



The produce of the Cliff Mine was 1,600 tons; of the Minnesota, 1,350; 

 and of the North American, 265. 



ON THE DISCOVERY OF A FOSSIL TEEE WITHIN THE ARCTIC 



CIRCLE. 



Sir Edward Belcher, at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association, 

 gave the following description of the trunk of a fossil tree discovered erect 

 as it grew within the Arctic Circle, in 75 32' N. ? 92 W., or immediately 



