New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-07-10

This effected. the ground reached, tents pitched
stores bro5g forward q cook installed &c. me
miners NAV commence Dot TO raise Mineral 70 any
extent. but to prove veins. assuming that such
have previously been discovered. Suppose there
are on the location four 10 eight known veins or
rather superficial indications Of Mineral it is hard
lv probable that half Of these worth working at
present IL ever while it is very certain that one or
two Of them are far more valuable than the others
bat which these are cannot be determined from So
pericial indications shafts must be sunk and sew
ersl drifts run on vein before It's value can be even
aDproxirnatelv ascertained Meantime, Winter
approaohes and cabins must be built winter stores
mot meagre for the season is very long ana appe'
ttes keen here procured from Detroit or belo" and
brought in. 10 which end great deal Of road work
teaming. &c. is essential For every days work
actually done on the ground another must be done
off Of il. while three or four men must u en-
Moved in raising water and rock by windlass IN
order that two may work at mining Thus Il at the
end Of two years Company has sufficiently proved
its veins 10 know rhere TO mine adyantsgeously II
NAV be accounted fortunate
Labor commands 81 10 $50 per month tor oTdi'
nary purposes Miners have thus far received go
per month for eight hours work per day Hay
worth Sc per ton in Detroit costs here $50 TO $40
per ton Potatoes average 81 l2s per bushel &c.
&C It is no long job at these rates to eat up So
0OO.
The worst encouragement Of all is the absence
of Smelling Works or any attainable market Tor
Mineral A Company which has persevered
through two or three years and raised one 70
Three Hundred Tons Of valuable Ore or Naive
Metal finds its liberal assessments all expended It's
laborers &c clamorous for pay and It's otockhold'
ers. instead Of being inclined to make farther ad-
vances impatient TO know when they are to come
in sight Of a dividend. The Agents or Trustees are
anxious TO sell what they have raised at some rate
and apply the proceeds 10 the discharge OF their
pressing liabilities But how sell Where =
There are no Smelling Works as yet on the Lake
,houghon or two small experimental furnaces were
mt No late last Fall and there is much talk OF the
works which are to be pat up at various points this
season. hope they will be But until they are,
there is really no market for Mineral, since the
great distance and necessarily heavy charge Tor
freights forbid the transportation OF anything short
of pure Metal, or nearly such, to the sesboard and
| cannot doubt that much Mineral might now be
bought on the Lake shore for half its actual valve
These impedments and discouragements, It will
be seen are temporary, and do not in the least mil
itate against the idea Of the ultimate productive
ness and profit Of Mining on Lake Superior The
time will soon arrive when the cost Of Labor and
Provisions here will not be fifty per cent. higher
than in Detroit-when Roads will be travelled that
shall have already been made-when Mines may
be worked which have not yet to be fully proved
and when Ores and Mineral. the quality being as
certaned, will command their price as readily as
Wheat or Cotton. | think that time cannot be far
distant and that dividends on Mining Stocks in the
interim will be exceptions to the general rule
Meantime, many sanguine hopes will be chilled and
many once Wanted locations virtually abandoned
some because they must be aud some because
they ought to be II is scarcely probable that one
half of the eight nine hundred locations already
made, mainly on a strip of land six miles wide
running nearly $50 miles from the Chocolate River
across the Ontonagon, will ever repay the cost of
proving and working am inclined to think there
will be fewer Companies and an abated deluge of
Stocks in $50 as compared with 1916. hear al
ready that good many locations have been or soon
are to be abandoned. at least for the present-per
haps as inconsiderately as they were made.
And now let me give one glance at the bright
side of the picture. have seen developments OF
masses of nearly pure CopPer-not exceptional
aud isolated but habtual and costinuous-during
my observations of the last week, which no man
can really comprehend and credit without having
seen them will speak of the famous Chii
Mine of the Pittsburgh Company, not as richer and
more wonderful than any other, for do not so con
slider i'll think have examined two others near
ly or quite as good-but because have no shadow
of interest in that mine, hardly know any who has,
and its reputation is so established and so world
wide that there can be no conceivable motive for
it in terms of exoggeration. few
words. then, of the celebrated Cliif Mine
-Four miles S. s. w of the mouth OF the decent
mill stream known as Eagle River, TO miles West
of Copper Harbor and 200 West of the Saul Ste.
Marie you stand at the base of a steep, rocky
bluff or cliff OF Trap rock, facing Southery toward
the stream which runs Eastward some half mile
from its base until it finds passage through the
range and turns Southerly to reach the Lake-by
a succession of falls. The base Of the Cliff is pro
badly 500 its summit 500 feet above the surface OF
the Lake, and its face is thnly covered wherever
the rocky chaos will permit it, with moderate
growth of White Birch and Poplar. Down the
face Of this Cliff nearly midway of its length runs
q shallow ravine or occasional water under
this lies the Cliff vein mine, on which four drifts
have been run into the cliff at the level OF the
base two at intervals Of thirty forty feet above
aud one below at a depth OF 10 feet from the sur
face. or considerably below the bed OF the stream
understand that the highest shaft has yielded
nothing of moment, and that all the others rur
against crosscourse Of green stone after pene
trsting the Cliff about quarter OF mile by which
the vein is killed and that ell attempts TO trace II
farther have thus far proved unavailing. l may
have been misiniormed on these points.
Approaching the mouth OF this mine, the visitei
finds himself confronted by great piles OF shining
Native Metal in the rock, some part Of which work
men are engaged in pounding as free from dead
rock as possible and bsrreling for shipment Junk'
Of pure, shspeless Copper from the size OF an egg
to that Of a milk pan, are proiusey scattered
around But your gaze OF wonder is speedily with
drawn from these by the spectacle Of great black