68 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



passed in cutting ice to get at foundations, and the ex- 

 tra cost of securing the large pits is at least 010,000 

 per month simply to keep them from falling in. We 

 can only spend more money and get straight, and if we 

 stop we are swamped. I know it is a hard road to travel, 

 but I could see no other. We must raise money for 

 Calumet and make that get Hecla out right. It is pretty 

 hard to be in such a fix, but we must face the music, 

 though I must say I get fearfully blue up here at times 

 all by myself, and feel often like choking anybody who 

 crosses my path. 



Daylight is, I trust, coming ; as soon as this old mill 

 gets going we shall be 0. K., moving ahead as fast as 

 possible, but when anything is wanted must go to 

 Houghton and now a trip is a thing of two days. Snow 

 is going fast and I shall be glad of opening of naviga- 

 tion to get letters a little more regularly and quickly. I 

 would give a great deal to have two days' talk with you 

 about everything here. 



Yours, 



A. Ag. 



A few days later he writes : — 



"I wish you could manage to run up here for a few 

 days. It would be worth a hundred pages of letters. 

 You might bring Annie and Chicks up, for if I have 

 to stay here till close of navigation without budging as 

 things look now, I must try and arrange matters at the 

 hotel to have them here till close of navigation. I think 

 I can do it and it will not cost any more to live here 

 than at home if they stay till November or end of Oc- 

 tober. I shall write Annie about it so that she may be 

 ready to move at a moment's notice, but I don't want 



