yield of the Lake Superior Mine in 1881 was the largest ever produced in a single year by any iron mine on this continent. No port in America equals Escanaba in the amount of its annual shipments of iron ore. The Menominee Mining Company, owning six developed mines and much undeveloped territory, is pronounced by Mr. A. P. Swineford, who has given more intelligent attention to this subject than most men, to be the largest ore producer in the world. The Republic is unquestionably the greatest iron mine in existence. It contains the largest single iron ore pit of which there is any record; its openings are numerous and skillfully planned, and it has elaborate machinery. It gives employment to more than 500 men, affords support to a village of 2,000 inhabitants, and loads over 300 cars with ore daily during the season. There are other mines not much behind the Republic in magnitude, and fully equal to it in the practical completeness of their appointments. QUALITIES OF MICHIGAN IRON. The Michigan ores are of extraordinary richness; sixty-two and nine-tenths per cent of metal is given by the State Geologist as the average percentage of first class ores, while the furnace books very often show a higher yield. In Pennsylvania fortunes have been made in mining forty per cent ores. The Lake Superior iron ranks as a standard metal in the markets, and its tenacity is very marked. REDUCTION OF THE ORE. The greater part of the ore mined in the upper peninsula is shipped in its natural condition and reduced into iron by the coke and anthracite furnaces of other States. The furnaces of Michigan use charcoal and produce a superior quality of pig metal. They are located near large tracts of hard wood, and depend for their prosperity upon the abundance of that supply of fuel. The building of new railways in the upper peninsula has opened immense tracts of charcoal timber which have been hitherto inaccessible, and an extensive revival in the manufacture of charcoal pig iron in that region is confidently expected. The production of charcoal gives employment to a large amount of labor, and it can be pursued at a season when other labor is suspended. THE BLAST FURNACES AND THEIR PRODUCT. The Marquette Mining Journal reports seven furnaces as in blast in the upper peninsula in 1881, and gives their product as 52,953 tons of pig metal, representing a value when placed in market of $1,588,590. There are blast furnaces also in other parts of that peninsula which were not in operation during that year, and still others situated in the lower peninsula, at Elk Rapids, Leland, Frankfort, Gilmore, Bangor, Caseville, Detroit, and Wyandotte. The publications of the U. S. Census Bureau show that in 1880 Michigan was the first State in the manufacture of charcoal pig iron. OTHER MINERAL RESOURCES. PLASTER. Deposits of a superior quality of gypsum, practically inexhaustible in extent and so exposed in the formation as to be easily accessible, have been found at two points in Michigan, viz.: In the bluffs on the shores of Lake Huron, near Alabaster, in Iosco county, and at the outskirts of the city of Grand Rapids where there is a vast bed of this limestone spreading at a depth of from 40 to 70 feet below the surface over an area of ten or twelve square miles. This rock is easily quarried or mined (two or three of the Grand Rapids companies have subterranean openings, taking the mineral from cavern-like excavations), and is either ground for use as a fertilizer, or ground and calcined into plaster-of-paris. Some of the finer grained masses are occasionally carved and polished into ornaments. The business is already a prosperous one, and can be developed in the future to meet any probable demand. never been systematically compiled and cannot be accurately given. missioner of Mineral Statistics estimated the total product of the State up to that time at 500,000 tons of land plaster and 700,000 barrels of calcined plaster. His report showed that at that date there were seven companies engaged in this business, and that the total product of the two preceding years was 95,000 tons of land plaster and 100,000 barrels of calcined plaster. Its statistics have Ground plaster for use as a fertilizer sells in the State generally, near railroad points, at about $4 per ton. COAL. It It is estimated by the geologists that one-fifth of the lower peninsula of Michigan is underlaid by coal-bearing deposits. These "coal measures," as they are termed, are supposed to cover an area of 8,000 square miles, and their limits, as far as ascertained, would be roughly defined by a line drawn from Sebewaing, on Saginaw bay, successively through Holly, Jackson, Albion, Hastings, and Big Rapids, and thence through Osceola, Clare and Gladwin counties to the mouth of the Rifle river in Bay county. The coal is bituminous and easily broken, possesses excellent heat-producing qualities, and burns with a bright flame, leaving but a small residuum of ashes. has not been found as yet in large quantities at any one point, and is not sufficiently exposed in the formation to make exploring easy or cheap, while it is, in its natural state, too highly bituminous or not pure enough to make its use possible for smelting, blacksmithing, or the manufacture of gas. The result is that it has been mined, thus far, to a limited extent only. Still, profitably workable beds of coal have been opened at Jackson and Corunna, and their yield has proved equal to any imported coal for the purposes of steam production. Bulletin 273 of the United States Census Bureau gave these statistics of coal production in Michigan: Number of mines, 6; tons mined in year ending June 1, 1880, 100,800; value at mines, $224,500; employés, 412. The total product of the State up to the close of 1881 may be estimated at over 700,000 tons. It is claimed by experts who have investigated the subject that the Michigan coal can be cheaply manufactured into a pure coke. If, after thorough experimenting this should prove to be the fact, a new era in the manufacture of iron in this State will be at hand. Furnaces will then spring up which will smelt the Lake Superior ores with the lower peninsula coal, and Michigan will rival Ohio and Pennsylvania in this great industry. As yet the stock of coal in this State is practically untouched, and only awaits the discovery of some method of making it more useful to become an important source of wealth. STONE, SLATE, AND EARTHS. Michigan is rich in sandstones and limestones of commercial importance. Building stone of excellent quality has been found at many points in the State, and quarries have been opened in the counties of Calhoun, Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Marquette and Monroe. The Marquette brown stone is of particularly fine texture and capable of receiving a high finish; it does not suffer by comparison with any of the free stones known to American builders. Its supply is practicably inexhaustible, and its quarrying is an infant industry which must inevitably develop into great importance. The grindstones of the Huron county quarries have no superior in the north west, and gritstones of good quality are found elsewhere in the State. The slates of the Huron Bay district in Baraga county, in the upper peninsula, are of excellent quality and cannot be surpassed in the American market in durability and color; these quarries can be developed to a practically unlimited extent and must certainly become the center of a large and thriving industry. The iron district produces a quartz rock which is supplanting the foreign quartz long imported for the lining of Bessemer steel converters and similar purposes. Clays and sands of commercial value are found everywhere in abundance. Brick and tile yards are numerous and successful potteries are in operation at different points. At Raisinville, Monroe county, is found a superior quality of glass sand, suitable for use in the manufacture of the finer grades of cylinder and plate glass. This has been shipped in large quantities to Pittsburg and Ontario, and is also used in the manufactory of window glass located at Delray, below the city of Detroit. This establishment is, as yet, the only one of its kind in Michigan; in 1880 it employed 54 workmen, paying them $30,000 in wages, and its product amounted to 30,000 boxes of glass of the value of $90,000; its works, which were destroyed by fire in the fall of 1881, are being rebuilt with improved facilities. Lime kilns are common throughout the State. Valuable marbles are among its rocks, and vast quantities of peat exist and must ultimately become valuable for fuel. SILVER. It was Native silver has been found in small quantities in the upper peninsula. taken from time to time from the openings of the Minnesota and the Cliff, and in the stamp mills of some of the mines upon the Pewabic lode the washed mineral is looked over for this metal. Seams of rock carrying granular silver have also been found in the Iron river district of Ontonagon county and occasioned some excitement at the time of their original discovery. The systematic mining of this metal has never been attempted in this State with profitable results. FISHERIES. That Michigan has the most productive fresh-water fisheries in the United States is easily explained by its geographical position. All the important towns on the shores of the great lakes and their connecting straits are the centers of a fishing interest which employs annually several thousand men, uses many steam and sail vessels of small tonnage, and has a large amount of capital invested in nets, shanties, ice-houses, boats and their outfit. The catch is principally confined to whitefish, lake trout, sturgeon, bass, pickerel and herring, and is marketed fresh, salted or frozen. Oil is also obtained in considerable quantities from the offal and unmarketable fish. GAME AND FOOD FISH OF THE INLAND LAKES. The inland lakes, of which there are more than 5,000 in this State, and the numerous streams also abound in the smaller varieties. Brook trout and grayling are plenty in some of the small rivers of the northern counties, and black bass are caught in many of the lakes. Sportsmen in great numbers flock annually into the thinly settled regions toward the Straits of Mackinac in quest of game fish. Perch, eels, pike, and other common varieties contribute to the food supply of the State. - ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION. The State has shown its appreciation of this interest by the passage of general laws for the protection and preservation of the best varieties of food fishes, and by the creation and maintenance of a Fish Commission. This board is charged with the artificial propagation of fish, which are planted in what are believed to be suitable waters for their natural development. It has hatcheries at Detroit, Pokagon in Cass county, and Boyne Falls in Charlevoix county, and up to the close of 1880 had planted in lakes and rivers (principally Lakes Huron and Michigan) 80,000,000 young whitefish, 1,000,000 silver eels, 1,000,000 lake trout, over 2,000,000 of the various varieties of salmon, 500,000 brook trout, and smaller numbers of shad, grayling, bass and pike. Excellent results have thus far followed this work in the cases of whitefish, land-locked salmon and eels. FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY-MICHIGAN EMPLOYS ONE-THIRD OF THE AMERICAN LAKE FISHERMEN. At the federal census of 1880, a large amount of information was obtained concerning the fisheries of the great lakes, which has been compiled and tabulated, and given to the public in Census Bulletin 261, under date of September 1, 1881. This information covers the statistics of the fishing industry, as connected with the great lakes, of eight States, viz.: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, and the general summary of the number of men and vessels engaged and the amount of capital employed is given in the table which follows: Number of Men and Vessels engaged in Lake Fishing, and Capital employed in 1880. It will be seen by this statement that the number of fishermen employed in the Michigan fisheries is more than 70 per cent greater than that of any other lake State. If the number incidentally connected with the trade should be added the aggregate would be largely increased. The number of gill-nets used here is stated to be 20,330, with a value of $113,900. Wisconsin, which stands second in this item, has 10,959 gill-nets, valued at $49,920. FISHING FOR FOOD AND COMMERCE-NEARLY ONE-HALF THE PRODUCT OF AMERICAN LAKE FISHING TAKEN IN THIS STATE. Another table compiled by the same authority gives the Quantities and Values of Fish taken in the Great Lakes in 1879. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Total.... 68,742,000 $1,652,900 21,463,900 $778,100 6,804,600 $221,700|| 15,356,300 $117,100 7,012,100 $116,300 Notes attached to this table state that the values are estimated on the basis of the prices of fresh fish, and that of the sturgeon credited to Illinois probably 750,000 pounds came from Wisconsin and a similar amount from Michigan and Indiana, reducing by those figures the general total of Illinois. It will not escape notice that the value of the fish taken by the fishermen of this State in 1879 was more than double that of any other States on the lakes. The reason for this difference, in face of the fact that the total weight caught by Ohio fishermen exceeds that taken here, will be readily comprehended by those who know the difference between whitefish and herring. Of the former variety there were caught in Michigan nearly 13,000,000 pounds, and in Ohio a little over 1,000,000. Of herring Michigan took about 1,500,000 pounds, and Ohio more than 11,000,000. Other figures given in the census tables are valuable and instructive in their relation to the food supplies of the State, as well as for their commercial character. It appears that of the twenty-four millions of pounds and upwards which formed the total catch of 1879 in this State, nearly sixteen millions of pounds, having a value of more than $466,000, were sold while fresh, most of it, presumably, for home consumption, and nearly one-half of this large supply was composed of whitefish, the finest lake fish known to epicures or in commerce. The salted fish of that year put up in Michigan amounted to 5,349,400 pounds, and were valued at $173,725. Something more than a million and a quarter of pounds of fish were frozen for preservation and sought a market in that condition, its value being $69,360. THE FISHING SEASON, PRICES, ETC. The fishing season on the lakes covers the season of navigation. Whitefish are most abundant in the spring and fall months, but are taken in the upper lakes, where the water is always cool, whenever the ice is out. They are never caught with a hook, but in gill-nets and seines. Large pounds are kept for their security, and a considerable trade is maintained through the winter by taking them from holes made in the ice for that purpose. Improved processes of freezing are growing in use, and fish are regularly supplied to eastern markets which have been preserved in this manner with their best qualities unimpaired. The ordinary retail price of fresh fish sold near the fishing stations during the season is about five cents per pound, and this includes whitefish, lake trout, bass, and pickerel. Whitefish taken through the ice out of season, or preserved by freezing, will bring 10 to 12 cents per pound in the Detroit market, and 15 to 16 cents in New York. The quotations of salted fish per 100 lbs. at Detroit early in October, 1881, were for whitefish $5.50, trout $4.50 to $4.75, and herring $3.00. THE VESSEL INTEREST. According to the tonnage statistics of the United States for the date of June 30, 1880 (as given in the American Almanac for 1881), not one of the States located away from the ocean coast equals Michigan in the number of vessels owned by its citizens or in their aggregate tonnage; the exact figures are given in this table: |