332 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. Vol. vii.] 



The scirapings are not clean. They carry from 1*40 per cent, 

 to 1-80 per cent of copper, 0-40 to 080 of which is as oxide* 

 Twelve tons of copper, therefore, are thrown away daily. 



The Calumet Company publishes no report, bat the followinjj 

 fii;ures are, if not quite, very nearly correct. There arc 1600 

 hands employed, 260 contracts are set in the Calumet, and a 

 somewhat greater number in the Hecla. The cost of breaking a 

 fjithom of ground varies from 26-00 to 22-00 dols., and it yields 

 21 tons of rock ; the cost of dressing exceeds that at the Quincy 

 mine, standing at 11 7 dols. per ton. In 1872 the mine produc- 

 ed 9717 tons of ingot. The quantity of ore raised daily was 

 about 740 tons, or 266,400 tons per year of 360 days; and, there- 

 fore, as it produced 9717 tons of ingot, the ore actually yielded 

 36 per cent of copper. This large amount of work was rewarded 

 by profit in proportion ; for there was distributed among the 

 shareholders, in 1872, 2,750,000 dols.; and during that same 

 year large sums were expended in permanent improvements. The 

 result in every respect is unparalleled in the history of copper 

 mining ; and all owners of copper mines with no such brilliant 

 promise can only hope that it may not be repeated ; for the effect 

 of a very few such mines would be most depressing. 



Adjoining the Hecla another mine is being opened by the 

 O.sceola Mining Company, which, from surface indications, will 

 be very rich. The Allonez near by is expected to turn out woll, 

 and on the Isle Royale attention is again being given to long- 

 neglected conglomerate beds, and the prospects of success is there 

 good also. The Royale, though belonging to Michigan, lies close 

 to the Canadian shore. As already pointed out, the copper for- 

 mation is largely developed from Michipicoten to Thunder Bay 

 on the main land and on Canadian Islands. 



With the experience gained on the south shore, explorations 

 could now be conducted on the north, with better chance of suc- 

 cess than heretofore. What little has been done has revealed 

 the existence of deposits that would not have remained unworked 

 had they been situated on the opposite shore. 



The following statistics, officially correct, are taken from the 

 annual circulars published by the "Portage Lake Mining Gazette." 



The production of all the mines on the promontory for the 

 year ending Nov. 30, 1873, was as follows: — 



