872 APPENDIX. 



was seventy-five cents. The distance is tliirty-six miles. The 

 price of conveying tlie same quantity from the storehouses at 

 Herculaneum and St. Genevieve to New Orleans, by steamboats, 

 was seventy cents. The distance exceeds 1,000 miles. Hence, 

 it costs more to transport a given quantity thirty-six miles by 

 land than to convey it 1,000 by water. These rates have proba- 

 bly varied since, but the proportionate expense of land carriage, 

 compared to that of water, will remain the same. A quintal of 

 copper may, therefore, be transported from the mines of Superior 

 to Buffalo or Lockport, in New York, for the same sum required 

 to convey an equal quantity of lead from Potosi to St. Genevieve. 

 If we consider the city of New York as the market of both, no 

 hesitancy or doubt can be experienced as to the decided and pal- 

 pable advantages possessed by the northern mines. It is only 

 necessary to adduce these facts; the conclusions are inevitable. 

 In every point of view, the distance of these mines from the mar- 

 jket presents no solid objection to their being explored with profit 

 to the nation. 



Pig copper, which is the least valuable form in which this metal 

 is carried to market, is now quoted in the Atlantic cities at 19 

 cents per pound; sheathing, at 27; brazier's, at 32. I have no 

 data at hand to show the amount of these articles consumed in 

 the United States, and for which Ave are annually transmitting 

 immense sums to enrich foreign States. But those who best ap- 

 preciate the advantages of commerce will readily supply the esti- 

 mate. It would be an interesting inquiry to ascertain how much 

 of the sums yearly paid for sheathing copper, bolts, nails, en- 

 gravers' plates, &c., is contributed to the wealth of the respective 

 foreign States who possess mines of this metal. "We can look 

 back to a period in the history of Great Britain, when that power 

 did not contribute one pound of copper to the commerce of Eu- 

 rope. During a period of nine years, closing with the memorable 

 year (in American history) of 1775, the produce of the copper 

 mines of Cornwall was 2,650 tons of fine copper. (See Note E.) 

 Since that time, the yearly returns of those mines exhibit a con- 

 stant increase ; and the copper mines of Great Britain are now 

 the most valuable in the world. The amount produced by the 

 mines of Cornwall and Devon, after deducting the charges of 

 smelting, for the single year of 1810, was 969,376 pounds sterling. 



