58 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



Shortly after his return to Boston, he wrote the fol- 

 lowing letter to Major Henry L. Higginson, who, having 

 married Agassiz's sister Ida, had bought, at the termina- 

 tion of the Civil War, a plantation in the South, and was 

 trying to raise cotton under the chaotic conditions that 

 prevailed there at the time. 



TO H. L. HIGGINSON 



Cambridge, February 3, 1867. 



[The first part of the letter deals with some plantation 

 matters.] Now about mining stocks, I really don't know 

 what to say. I have perfect faith myself in the value of 

 both Calumet and Hecla, the adjacent piece of land to 

 Calumet which was purchased last year while I was at 

 Lake Superior, and the results thus far obtained are 

 beyond our most sanguine expectations. Calumet after 

 this month will earn about $400,000 at least calculation 

 till the end of this year, but we must out of this equip 

 the mine thoroughly, build a good many roads, so that 

 the expenses of this year together with the amount 

 which must be kept in Treasury for work during the 

 winter, when no copper can be sold, as it cannot be 

 brought to market, will not leave much more than 

 enough to pay from $5 to perhaps $10 a share in 

 January, but the prospects of the mine (Calumet), from 

 the amount of copper now exposed, are most magnifi- 

 cent and in the course of the second year, 1868, the 

 mine will pay at least $15 a share and may go as 

 high as from $30 to $40. Of course I will not con- 

 ceal that all this depends upon the management at 

 the Lake. The value of the mines, both Hecla and 

 Calumet, are beyond the wildest dreams of copper 

 men, but with the kind of management many of the 



