224 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



cussions. I 've come to the conclusion that my best plan 

 is to mind my own business, and devote my time to work 

 and the publication of what I have to say, and leave 

 these discussions to be carried on by the other side alone. 



Calumet, Oct. 4, 1886. 



" I never saw anything like the steel pens here — they 

 are simply abominable. I shall have to bring up my own 

 quills hereafter, or I run risk of spoiling forever my 

 otherwise striking chirography. The weather to-day is 

 superb again. I have taken advantage of the day to take 

 a general survey of the location and of the proposed 

 alterations and additions, and by to-morrow shall have 

 seen all the surface places, and then will make out a 

 program for the next five years, which will open the 

 eyes of all concerned ; and in five years from now there 

 is nothing I have dreamt of I cannot then carry out, 

 even if copper goes to ten cents ! ! again, which I don't 

 think it will for a while at least. 



I shall be hard at work for a while here and hope by 

 middle of the week to be able to say when I can leave. 

 But I shall have to come back by way of Philadelphia 

 and see the builders who are to make all the new equip- 

 ment and make sure we can carry out the program, for 

 it is one which will tax the largest shops of the country 

 to the utmost, and to make time as laid out on the time- 

 table of the proposed duplication will need all the man- 

 agement and forethought possible. But if I succeed it 

 will be the greatest thing ever done in a mining way. I 

 have not yet had a chance to go to the mills where the 

 great changes have taken place and see what has been 

 accomplished. The fact is, I 've only just awakened to 

 the discovery that if I had spent my thoughts and capi- 



