Smyrna times., 1884-12-17
For the Spl.r0l 7yue
In the Copper Regions of Lake
Superior, on the Upper Pc
ninsula Of Michigan.

LII Cu6 copper Regions OF Lake
1 Superior, on the Upper Pc
ninSula Of Michigan.
j.. DEAR TIMES. me for tres
passing again SO soon on your columns.
. but when one gets out of his beaten
path and thrown into scenes new and
exciting, the inspiration to dot it down
= is instructive.
For years my roamings during the
" cold chilly winds Of december have
been on tropical soil, in the haunts of
the alligator and in the perfumed
groves where ripe oranges can be pull
ed from their living clusters, and out
ot-door picncs come on Christmas dav.
To-day find myself in the most frost
banded region of our country. wav up
in the copper region Of Lake Superior,
two hundred miles further north than
Ontario (lower Canadaj.
Marquette is emphatically a mining
town, and the centre of the copper and
iron producing interests. The hema.
tites in their various colors are found
yielding from IS to so per cent of the
toughest and best iron. Copper is
never found to yield so high per
cent, being more lightly difTused in its
carbonate, bi-carbonate and sulphate
formations. There are copper mines
that yield low per cent, but the COP
per is native and bears some resem-
blance to being shot in" 1t is only
necessary to stamp and wash to pro-
cure the metal. Calumet, Houghton
and OntOnagon mines are all Of this
description, finding it in nugget. in
larger or smaller sizes of native ore
Perhaps no corporation ever paid
larger dividends than the first named.
reaching from three to five hundred per
cent, but that promises to be reached
and Overtaken by the Ontonagon Min
ing Company and the Detroit and
Lake Superior Copper Mining Com
pany
! Large smelling furnaces have been
established at various points. and /
more will follow after this season of de-
preston has passed. Machinery has
now been put in to make sheets and |
other forms of merchantable copper
which will be continually added to.
After reading the report of the Sec
retary of the Treasury, the decrease in
the annual production of gold amount
ing to S30,000,0OO, we feel relieved to
find that the miners have struck "
gold up here, but they do not propose
to make fuss about it, or let the great
Secretary hear of the new "lead " and
miss the chance of bagging a few mil
lions while the inhabitants are sparse
and the region is but little known.
WILD GAME.
The Aboriginese have never all been
driven out of the Peninsula of Michi.
gan, that reaches so far towards the
Pacific, but they dwell on well defined
reservations, gradually but surely de-
creasing and must decrease until the
race becomes extinct But there is
enough of the savage left in us all,
even to the Delawareans to linger after
the hunt and pursuit of wild game and
to richly enjoy the sport especially if
the game be large, and what the wis
dom of Providence is in populating
northern attitudes so much heavier
than Southern with game of that de-
scription is not apparent to us unless it
is because in cold climates SO much
more animal food is required; at any
rate it is SO and we see deers brought
to the stations in wagon loads being
shipped to Chicago.
The habits of the American deer is
not unlike the wild goats of olden time
that in David's day, in the land of +
Palestine they dwelt among the rocks
and in the Businesses and caves of the '
mountains. So in this rough, rocky re-
gion still covered with the primeval ;
forest with all of its gloomy grandeur, 7
the deers have been thick until within 7
the last few years. TO capture them
by decOying them with piece of red
flannel on pole at well known points 6
where their paths were well establish /
ed through the rocky passes is a we'll q
known device of the hunter. =
There is legendary theory that o
certain perfumery into which the red +
flannel could be stepped, and that so +
accute was the sense of smell that the ;.
deer could scent it a-half mile away. =
and that if one of a beevy of deer pass =
ed that way under the pole, the others
could scent it on him and would go in
pursuit of it, never striking the back :,
track. Be that as it may it is certain .
the red flannel is nothing new as a re- :,
sort of old hunters both for deer and .
elk Nor is the deer and elk all of the !.
large game of the Fall and Winter cap :
ture, for as feet black bear as ever
growled at a cur or hugged hunter,
can now be seen going forward to fill n
a sample of which our land n
lord furnished his guests to-day. Of
course small game exists but in every n
section where both abound the latter
has scarcely any mention. Delaware
has set of industrious muskrat trap tl