299 



The length of roads of the companies is as follows : 



Main line of the Michigan Southern Road, 131 



« " Northern Indiana Road, 113 



244 

 Branches, 71 



Total miles, .315 



After deducting the cash and other property on hand, the present 

 actual investments in the construction and equipment of the 315 miles 

 of road, is about six millions of dollars. This is less than $20,000 per 

 mile — a cost not exceeding one-third to one-half the cost of similar 

 works in New York and the eastern States. 



Michigan, it is believed, was the first State to pass a homestead ex- 

 emption law, aud to abolish capital punishment; and among the first to 

 relinquish the old and barbarous system of locking up debtors in prison. 

 The first is said to have been originated by a farmer. It was ridiculed 

 and opposed, but is now adopted by a majority of the States. 



The copper mines of Lake Superior had evidently been worked very 

 extensively in very remote periods. These anciert works are of great 

 magnitude, ant' are found extending over a wide space. Mr. C. Whit- 

 tlesey [Smith's Annals of Science, Vol. 1, No. 2,) believed these mi- 

 ners to have been the' "race of the mounds" which occupied the State 

 of Ohio, at a very remote period, and from whom descended the Aztecs, 

 the ancestors of the Mexicans. The present race of Indians appear to 

 have been entirely ignorant of the art of mining:, and even of the verv 

 existence of the old workinss. 



o 



The copper in the present day is found in masses, some loose, weigh- 

 ing over six tons; in veins of various thickness; and in ores mixed 

 with rock. The raine=; are generally worked by shaft*, until a vein is 

 hit, when it is followed, the copper cut out with chisels, and raised to 

 the surface. The followinsr table shows the condition of the mines in 

 1850. The amount of mineral sent to market has since largely in- 

 creased, and copper smelting works have been established near Detroit. 

 Large quantities, however, are exported to Boston and Pittsburgh: 



