LETTERS FROM THE NORTHWEST. I. 
THE LAKE SUPERIOR REGION. 
Dutatth, Mlnti., July 21, 1873. 
Eds. Rural. New-Yorker:—I send you a 
greeting from the head of Lake Superior, 
having reached this place last evening by 
steamer on the upper lakes, by way of Sault 
St. Marie. Up to that point 1 need not say 
anything, as it is now within the pale of 
everyday life and civilization. The Sault is 
by no means that fearful and romantic thing 
our early education taught, us — for in 
grandeur and volume of water it is vast¬ 
ly inferior even to the American Rapids 
at Niagara Falls, leaving the greater, or 
Horse-Shoe side of the river entirely out 
of the account. 
The whole descent in a mile of the rap- 
id is but twenty-two feet, and is easily 
passed down in boats. We saw these 
go down while our steamer was pass¬ 
ing the locks, which are two in number, 
each of about ten feet lift, and capable of 
passing steamers of twelve hundred tons. 
Government is enlarging and deepening 
the canal and locks so as to pass boats 
of greater tonnage ; and steam excava¬ 
tors are removing the boulder clay, which 
is the geological formation. The inter 
vale lands extend about a mile back on 
each side of the river, and then rise 
gradually into low, wooded hills. The 
soil is evidently cold and unproductive, 
except for grass. I did not see a single 
field of grain, and the only vegetable 
garden worth mentioning was that con¬ 
nected with the Catholic Mission Church „ r 
on the Canada side of the Sault. No 
grain, no gardens, few cattle and but 
little grass, except the wild, native grass¬ 
es of the region, it is quite evident that 
the Lake Superior region must depend 
for its prosperity upon the products of 
its forests, fisheries and mines. W e saw 
the Indians at the Sault dipping the white 
fish out of the eddies with small, hand 
scoop-nets, and as they lifted them into 
the sunlight their white sides glistened 
like silver. 8t. Peter might reasonably ^ 
have said here, “ 1 go a fishing and 
his co-Apostles responded, “We go with 
thee.” 
Keweenan Point is a remarkable penin¬ 
sula thrust forward for sixty miles into 
the lake, half way between its upper aud 
lower extremity. It is on this projec¬ 
tion, and on Isle Royal, lying off its 
northern coast, that the ricliest copper 
mines in the world are located; one 
single corporation, the Calumet & Heeln, 
producing the amazing quantity of ten 
thousand tons in a single year. The cop¬ 
per-bearing rock is not, technically speak¬ 
ing, an ore, but the metal is scattered 
through the rock in a native state from mass¬ 
es of pure copper, down to the minutest par¬ 
ticles ; and hence mechanical rather than 
chemical processes are resulted to for its re¬ 
duction. The large lumps are removed by 
hand and then the rock is first pulverized by 
stamps and the pulverized mass subjected to 
the washing process, by means of which the 
copper grains, being heavier, sink to the bot¬ 
tom, and the lighter and worthless material 
is carried off by the water. The Quincy 
mine runs sixty-four of these large pestles, 
each weighing half a ton, in sets of four 
each. They are raised by cranes or shafts 
run by steam, anti the amount of rook 
crushed is surprising. The whole waters of 
Portage Lake for miles are discolored and 
rendered unfit for use by the stamp washings. 
The corporations like to run upon mass 
copper, but do not like to fiud it in too large 
lumps, it is so tough aud difficult to cut. It 
cannot be exploded, nor split nor sawed, but 
has to be chiseled out by hand. The Central 
Mine is now engaged in chiseling up at the 
bottom of their shaft a mass of pure copper 
weighing (by measurement) two hundred 
and fifty tons. 
The copper interest, for a few years back, 
has been much depressed, und none but the 
richest of the mines would pay for working; 
and hence these places—such as Copper Har¬ 
bor, Eagle Harbor, Eagle River, &c.—that de¬ 
pended on the trade, look dilapidated and 
distressed. Some mines once extensively 
wrought, are utterly abandoned; and the 
decay and ruin of their structures are sor¬ 
rowful reminders of disappointed hopes and 
expectations. Truly Yours, E. w. 
--*-►>- 
ENTERING LAND BY PRE-EMPTION. 
In regard to entering land by pre-emption, 
and under the Homestead Law, G. W. F. is 
informed :—Homestead settlers may pay for 
their land in cash or warrants at the Govern¬ 
ment price, $1.25 or 2,50, upon making proof 
of actual residence and cultivation for a 
period of not less than six months from the 
date of entry to the time of payment, but 
tliis does not Interfere with the right to pre¬ 
empt. The fact that a person has had the 
benefit of the pre-emption act does not in any 
case interfere with his right to homestead. 
The fact that a person has had the benefit of 
the homestead act does not prevent him from 
pre-empting, hut no one can leave his or her 
own land in the same State or Territory to 
take the benefit of the pre-emption act. In¬ 
asmuch an both homestead and pre-emption 
>ricntific and Kstfttl. 
UNIFORN PUBLIC TIME. 
The New York Post says :—As the country 
has increased in wealth and population, and 
the most distant parts have been brought 
into communication with each other, by rail 
and telegraph, the need of an accurate, uni¬ 
form public time has constantly become more 
apparent. The work of securing this was 
lately undertaken by the managers of the 
Western Union Telegraph Co., and their ef¬ 
forts promise to result in complete success. 
ALPINIA VITTATA. 
require actual residence upon the land | 
claimed, no person can hold land under both 
acts at the same time. No person can pre¬ 
empt more than once. No person can home¬ 
stead more than once. No person can make 
a second entry to a homestead unless the first 
entry was illegal. 
-- 
FEMALES SECURING HOMESTEADS. 
The Iowa Press says Some time hist fall, 
Mrs. Robert McConnell, a soldier’s widow, 
went to Clay county. Kansas, and took a 
homestead under the soldiers’ act. Five or 
six weeks since, Mi’s, David Kilgore, Mrs. 
Robert White, and Mrs. James Shields, all 
soldiers’ widows, went to said county, and 
with Mrs. McConnell, mounted an ox cart 
drawn by Texan cattle, drove to the land 
office, and entered claims. They have bought 
lumber with which to build cabins aud they 
propose to live there the time required to 
perfect title to their claims. Under the 
amended act, female homesteaders can de¬ 
duct from the five years required to secure a 
homestead, whatever time their husbands 
served in the army. This provision will 
shorten their term of exile from civilization. 
The act of the resolute women appears the 
more heroic in this, that none of them have 
children of any age to be helpful to them. 
-«■«■» 
“Chances” in West \ r A. orEastTenn. 
—N. S. of Michigan asks correspondents in 
West Virginia or East Tennessee to tell him 
what the chances are for a man who knows 
how to work, to get land on time and work 
to pay for it off from the land in crops; or 
are there owners of large tracts who would 
give a few acres to get improvements and 
settlements started. We may say, at a ven¬ 
ture, that any man who knows how, and is 
willing to work, can get land in any State in 
the Union, provided lie is economical and en¬ 
terprising. Just such men are needed in 
Western Virginia and East Tennessee. 
The details of the plan were arranged by 
General Eckert, Mr. Brown aud Mr. Hineh- 
man, the superintendent of the first district, 
with Professor Harkness and others connect¬ 
ed with the National Observatory in Wash¬ 
ington. This is said to be the only place of 
the kind in the country where absolutely 
correct time is obtained, as no other has 
been fitted up with the requisite instruments 
and appliances on such an elaborate and 
costly scale. The great clock here, alone, 
was constructed at an expense of $10,000 in 
gold. 
To form the connection between the ob¬ 
servatory and the principal office of the tele¬ 
graph company in tin's city, a cup of vulcan¬ 
ized rubber was placed beneat h the pendulum 
of the observatory clock, supporting, upon a 
little iron stand in the center, a globule of 
mercury. This is so near the bottom of the 
pendulum that the latter just grazes the mer- 
cur3 T as it swings above it in the center of its 
arc. A wire extends from the bottom of the 
cup to a battery in the observatory, while 
another wire from the top of the pendulum 
connects with an electric bell in the telegraph 
office in this city. The time is received here 
at noon in the following manner, the differ¬ 
ence in time between the two cities being 12 
minutes and 12 seconds : 
The wire by which the time is’ communica¬ 
ted from Washington is used for ordinary 
business, except for a few minutes at mid¬ 
day. 
As no machinery is perfect, a device has 
been introduced by which the chronometer 
in this city is regulated automatically. At¬ 
tached to the ,bottom of the pendulum are 
two steel rods, which pass, at each vibration, 
into the center of a coil of fine wire on either 
side. These coils are magnets, which, com¬ 
pleting the circuit with the clock at the 
observatory, hasten or retard the movement 
of the pendulum, so as to render it uniform 
with the clock in Washington. 
It is designed to have clocks in the depots 
of the leading railway lines in the principal 
cities, to be regulated by the clock in the 
Western Union office, as that is regulated 
from Washington, thus securing a uniform 
public time. From them connections will be 
made with the smaller t owns along the line, 
either in the same way or by dials operated 
by electric magnets. 
At two minutes before 12 o’clock in Wash¬ 
ington, all business having been suspended 
on one of the wires extending to New York, 
the wire which connects with the battery is 
joined to the cup at the bottom of the 
pendulum, thus forming a complete cir¬ 
cuit whenever the. pendulum, at the 
interval of one second, touches the ball 
of mercury. The seconds are thus indi¬ 
cated on the electrie bell in the office 
here, which is placed in front of a ehro- 
nometer, so that any variation of the 
latter is observable by comparing the 
vibration of ita pendulum with the 
strokes on the bell. Two of these strokes 
are made at. exactly noon in Washing¬ 
ton, and they are continued for sixty 
seconds thereafter. The clock in this 
. city is run by New York time, that is 
& to say, it is kept 12 minutes and 12 sec- 
V onds faster than the clock in the observ¬ 
atory. 
The clock in the office here is now 
gaining about a quarter of a second per 
day. Since the system was put into op¬ 
eration on the 21st of June, its daily viot- 
ation from Washington time lias aver¬ 
aged barely half a second. The pres¬ 
ent workings of the plan aro considered 
simply as experiments, and when all 
the arrangements are perfected it is be¬ 
lieved that there will be no variation 
whatever. 
Two sets of hands will be attached to 
the regulated clocks, operated by the 
same movement, and indicating at once 
the standard and the local time. A 
clock of this kind was lately put in the 
telegraph office at Port Hastings, Cape 
Breton, the terminus of the Western 
Union line, which shows at a glance the 
difference of 50 minutes, 10 seconds and 
14-00 of a second between that time and 
the New York. 
A costly clock is now on the way 
from England, to be placed at the termi¬ 
nus of the French cable, in Duxbury, 
Mass. This has a double set of hands, 
and will show, for the first time in this 
country, the time of Washington and 
Greenwich together. The Washington 
time will be furnished from the tele¬ 
graph office in this city, while the Green¬ 
wich time will be transmitted by cable. 
The difference of time between this city 
and Duxbury, Mass., is said to be about 
twelve minutes. 
rifloriculturat. 
ALPINIA VITTATA. 
This pretty variegated plant is a native of 
the South Sea Islands. Its distichous lanceo¬ 
late leaves vary from G to 8 inches in length, 
and are strikingly marked with pale green or 
creamy-yellow stripes on a dark green 
ground. It is a perennial, and grows freely 
under ordinary stove treatment, making, 
when thoroughly established, a very effective 
decorative plant. Each plant presents charm¬ 
ing variety in the coloring of its individual 
leaves, the yellow stripes preponderating in 
some cases, and the fight green in others. It 
is easily propagated by dividing its under¬ 
ground rhizomes, and should be added to all 
collections where variegated foliage plants 
are a desideratum. Even when grown in 
small pots it is an effective plant for stove 
decoration. 
-- 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES. 
The Scottish Pansy Society is the name 
of an organization in Scotland, at an exhibi¬ 
tion of which hundreds of unnamed blooms 
of all known shades and markings were ex¬ 
hibited. Among the 24 first-prize dissimilar 
blooms the following were named as especial¬ 
ly fine :—Dickson’s Golden Gem, Snowflake, 
Canury, Aman, Magnifica. Butterfly and 
Striata Alba. The best white ground was 
Jane Grieve; the best yellow ground was not 
named. Snowdrop was the finest white self, 
Cherub the finest yellow, and In Memory the 
finest blue. Jane Grieve won the first prize 
as the best bloom at the Exhibition. 
