230 DEPOSITS OF NATIVE COPPER 



height to which the variety grows, and the luxuriance 

 which the soil and climate usually impart to it. 



It is a striking fact that, in Alabama, in ordinary 

 husbandry, half a bushel of seed is by very many per- 

 sons found sufficient to secure a good crop of wheat. 

 Considering the difference of climate, however, it is 

 perhaps as remarkable that, on the low flat new red- 

 sandstone country of north-western Lancashire, called 

 the Fylde^ where the weather is wet and uncertain in 

 the autumn and winter, less than a bushel of seed should 

 by many persons be found sufficient for their winter 

 wheat, when sown early in October.* 



Of the economical circumstances connected in the 

 public mind with the great inland lakes of North Ame- 

 rica, that which, next to the agriculture of Michigan and 

 the other adjoining States, most materially affects one of 

 our important home interests, is the existence of large 

 deposits of native copper at various places in the States 

 of Michigan and in the British north-western territory. 

 These deposits were known to the native inhabitants of 

 North America, probably many centuries ago, but it is 

 only about ten years since they were re-discovered, and 

 their value proved ; and only four or five since the metal 

 from them has been extracted and brought to market. 



The most important of these mineral deposits which 

 have yet been discovered are those of the Upper penin- 

 sula of Michigan, which separates Lake Michigan from 

 Lake Superior. The mines hitherto opened are chiefly 

 on the Kewenaw peninsula, which juts out into the 

 middle of Lake Superior, and to the south-west of this 

 peninsula, a few miles up the Ontonagon River, which 

 empties into Lake Superior. 



The remarkable feature in these mines is the immense 

 sheets, or walls, of native or metaUic copper which occur In 



* Royal Agncultural Journal, vol. x. p. 24. 



