Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-07-30
Editorial Correspondence Of The Tribune.
Life on Lake Superior.
CoPPER Hill, Northwest Location, !
Lake Superior, June lS, 1877.

. "h' ~ 'hD ihiuoh VI lHt ldliltu InlleIdl ht-
gion of Lake Superior, Of which so much that
is wonderful, true and false, has been rep ort-
ed within the last few years. T'rampinr
through the scarcely broken forest from ioca-
ton TO location, by footpaths and trails which
may be followed but do not compare advan-
tageously with the Third-avenue or any other
structure after the manner of McAdam-cross-
ing mill-streams on logs, wading swamps
reckless of boots, and fighting musketoes and
black flies, (much the more ravenous beasts
these flies are,) ] have had for some days few
oments or thoughts 10 spare for cities, news
papers, or people who are so extravagant as
to live in houses. The log cabin wherein |
habitually sleep or muse at night and occa-
sionally write by day is of the more %aristo-
cratic order, being the : Office and domicil of
the Company's Agent, an ex-Bank Clerk and
Teller from Wall-st. This will account for
the remarkable circumstance of its being light
ed by two windows each Of six lights of 8 by
ten glass, (barrirg one that has stepped out,
probably to afford convenient egress 10 the
musketoes that pour in at every c~revice, and
through the door whenever it is opened y
IL the light thus admitted were not abundant,
there is a f~irst-rate chance of starlight through
the roof. A table, chair and bedstead-all
made on the premises with an axe-compose
the bulk of the furniture, with a stove in the
centre for use, two trunks at the sides for or
nament, and a pair of rough board shelves
resting on barked poles containing the agents
spare clothing and his rather abundant 'spe-
cimens' of Native Copper, Gray Sulphuret,
Red Oxide, Spar, Silver, &c., &c. | don't
believe there is another tenement so sumptu-
ously furnished among the dozen within a
radius of three miles every way from this
As the evenings here are inveterately chilly,
no matter how warm the day, and a fire is
needed TO attemper rightly the necessarily in
flowing cold air, the kegs of powder have
been removed in Difference TO my preiudices,
after remaining here in cosy familiarity with
the stove and the agent for months-so there
is no lack OF room at present.
Next door is the Refractory of the location,
where Salt Beef, ditto Pork, Potatoes, Bread,
Tea or Coffee without milk, under various
permutations, are punctually served up three
times each day, and ample justice done 10
them by those whom the horn promptly sum-
mons from their several shafts, drifts, Dig
gings, clearings, &c. I'm order to live in the
highest style, we have a man-cook, after the
fashion of the upper Ten.') 1t is recorded
that two women-too noble to be STYLED la
dies-once improved a short spell of good
sleighing 10 cheer some friends on this loca-
ton with the light of their countenances, COM
ing seven miles with only three overturns)
on purpose, which condescension will long
be held in grateful remembrance. Not even
the jewellers in Bond-strpet or Blocker are
more free from the vulgarity of having their
doors surrounded by children, pigs and chick
ems than the residents on this location. AS
yet, a mule and a dog are the only domestic
animals that have been seen here. Yet the
hum of busy industry makes all lively and
cheerful. The logs and brush roarand crackle
in the devouring flames, the forest re-echoes
the ring of the Woodlands axe, the clink of
hammers, sledges and drills breaks the silence
hitherto invaded but by the hurricane; and
an occasional blast comes up from the bowels
of the earth TO remind us that the miners are
delvIng below. Above ground the destruc-
ton OF the Old is preparing the way for the
New beneath, the rocks which have slum-
bered since Creation, are torn asunder by sui
phurous fires and compelled to render up their
boarded treasures. Thus Nature and Art
perpetually struggle with and act upon each
other, in seeming hostility, but in essential
harmony.
Yet | erred in saying that silence has hith-
erto relgned here unbroken save by Natures
commissions since Adam. On this very spot
have been found, in this very cabin are de-
posted, the elaborately fashioned stone-ham-
mers wherewiIh some long forgotten face was
accustomed to beat off scraps or fragments of
the Native Copper for use ages upon ages ago
perhaps before the Deluge. Truly said the
wise King, There is nothing new under the
SUM-
But let me speak more generally of this for
m 4.,o .l,.an. q l.. =.
have been somewhat disappointed in the
face of the country. That it is generally rug
ged, stony and broken, | well knew; but it
is by no means so universally so, nor as a
whole so sterile as | had supposed. The
shores of the Lake, save in the few cases
where deep bays make far into the country,
afford no fair idea of the soil and timber
Along the shore the conglomerate rock is
thinly covered by a niggard soil, supporting
a stunted growth in good part of Spruce, Ce-
dar, Pitch Pine and other evergreens, diver
siied by White Birch, Poplar, &c. But a
few miles inlaHd-often in less than one mile
the rock changes, the soil d~eepens, the hills
slope southerly to the Little Montreal, Lac
La Belle, &c., and the smooth glades thus
formed are covered with a beautiful growth
mainly of Sugar Maple, Black Birch, &c.
hCi . VI SONioO SiOut uiNOioIyS w an
abundance of Hemlock in the swamps and
%ravines; but ] never saw so much Rock Ma
pie in travelling twenty miles as in the five
or six miles between this place and Lac La
Belle, on the East site of Keewenaw Point.
White Pine of the amplest size, and of good
quality for Boards, Shingles, &C., abounds
almost every where. | doubt whether there
is anywhere a better linbered region than this,
while the soil, though generally stony except
in the swamps, and often too broken and pre-
cipitous for cultivation, is in good part strong
and well adapted to the production of Pota-
toes, Oats, Turnips, Grasses, Spring Grain,
&C., &c. Winter Grain would probably be
killed by the weight and long continuance of
snow, while Corn must be seriously endan-
gered by frost, save in a few favored locali-
ties. Probably the small kind known as Ca
NADIA would do well. For the common escu-
lent roots there is probably no better country: