THE CALUMET AND HECLA MINE 61 



At this crisis, the management decided to send Agas- 

 siz to Michigan to take charge, for he felt convinced 

 that this rich deposit of copper could be worked at a 

 profit, and that he could do it. Just before he left for 

 Calumet, Charles W. Eliot, then an unknown young 

 professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 met him in the streets of Boston. 



He said : " Eliot, I am going to Michigan for some 

 years as superintendent of the Calumet and Hecla Mines. 

 I want to make money ; it is impossible to be a produc- 

 tive naturalist in this country without money. I am 

 going to get some money if I can and then I will be a 

 naturalist. If I succeed, I can then get my own papers 

 and drawings printed and help my father at the Mu- 

 seum." 



Seldom, indeed, have the aspirations of youth proved 

 in such harmony with the achievements of maturity. 



Before entering into Agassiz's life at Calumet, a few 

 words may not be out of place here, for the benefit of 

 those unfamiliar with copper mining. From the charac- 

 ter of the deposits on the Peninsula, the processes used 

 in extracting the metal from the rock are somewhat differ- 

 ent from those employed where the copper occurs in the 

 form of an ore, or chemical compound. 



When the rock is brought to the surface, it first goes 

 to a rock house, where it passes through a series of 

 breakers, and is broken into small pieces. From here it 

 goes to a mill, where it is reduced to little particles, 

 after which the whole, flooded with water, passes over 

 a series of washing machines and other contrivances, 

 where the copper is drawn off, the refuse going out with 

 the water. The whole process depends on the principle 

 that by agitating the mass the copper will sink to the 



