AMERICAN COPPER.

The copper region commences at Chocolate River, a little east of Copper Harbor, in Lake Superior, and extends along the southern shores of that lake some three hundred and fifty miles to the British line, pursuing a north-westerly direction. The width is from one to twenty-five miles, according to the course of the ranges of trap rock, the uniform concomitant of the ore.

This region

abounds in evidence of ancient volcanic action, particularly in the frequent appearance among the ore of native copper. The ore appears in veins on the surface of the earth, and in rocks on hill sides. These veins vary in width from six inches to sixteen feet.-Some of them descend into the earth perpen. dicularly, others at various degrees of inclination, and some of them, after performing a curvature under the earth, re-appear or "crop out" again.

The ores yield, on an average, about twenty-five per cent of pure copper-the purest in the world. The mines of Cornwall, in England, yield only from eight to nine per cent; those of Bohemia about fifteen. The only mines in the world-except those of Cuba and Jamaica, of which we are ignorant-that rival in richness the mines of Lake Superior, are those of Russia. The latter also are the only

ones worked with equal facility, being like the Superior mines, near the surface, and yielding, from the very commencement of operation, ample supplies of metal. The mines of Cornwall and Hungary are worked to a depth of twenty-five hundred feet and were excavated at an expense of three hundred thousand to half a million of dollars, before anything was realized. No shaft on Lake Superior has as yet been sunk to a greater depth than one hundred feet. It is remarkable that a copper vein never fails unless it crops out elsewhere. Interruptions, faults may occur, but continued digging will strike the ore again.

The cost of getting ore to the surface is about four dollars per ton, one hand being able to get out about half a ton per day. The cost of smelting or washing, so far, is about half that price-say altogether six dollars per

ton.

If the ore yield twenty-five per cent of metal, it is worth, at sixteen cents per pound, eighty dollars; thus leaving a large margin for profit, after the expenses of working the mines are paid.

Such operations have, of course, attracted operators, who have proceeded with equal celerity and silence to explore and appropriate the localities affording the best indications of metal. Our Government, so far, has adopted the policy of leasing, at first in tracts of nine miles square, now of one only. The leases continue for nine years, at a rent of six per cent of the ore for the first three years, and ten per cent for the residue of the period, the tenant giving security for the due payment of the government share, and renewing the bond every three years.

Operations were commenced by two companies in 1-4. In 4 twelve more companies have begun working.

The

The amount of money required to prosecute these undertakings rendered it expedient to form associations for the purpose. To obtain acts of incorporation, however, would involve too much trouble and delay. plan has therefore been adopted of vesting the title of property held by the several companies in separate sets of trustees, according to articles of agreement which specify their duties and prohibit the contracting of debts, so that a stockholder incurs no risk whatever of incurring liabilities that may affect his individual property.

The locations of these companies are generally in the neighborhood of Copper Harbor, on Kewena Point; those selections have been made not only for the apparent superiority in the quantity of ore, but from the convenience to navigation, so that supplies of provisions and hands can be easily procured, and the ore or metal may be chiefly transmitted to market.

The two companies which commenced in 1844, are now ready with oxes for smelting or washing. The Lake Superior company 1100 tons on hand. The Pittsburgh and Boston some one hundred tons, having been extensively engaged in preparations.

In addition to these Companies in actual operation, about thirty others have been formed, which will average about twenty-five hundred shares, at ten dollars a share.

The total of all these stocks is about two millions and a half. It does not seem to be extravagant to estimate that all these associations when at work, will bring into market a sufficient quantity of copper to amount to three hundred thousand dollars per annum beyond their expenses. Ten or twelve hundred tons would be enough to pay expenses and produce that sum, and thus make the stock good for twelve per cent on its estimate value. Our importations of copper are now made from abroad and largely exceed this quantity.

There are, however, unquestionably, expectations entertained by the several compaDies of supplying much larger quantities than this. And, from the enterprize, skill and energy of our people, we think that will be the case. The universal use of the metal in civilized countries, and the great extension of the demand that would ensue from a slight reduction of price, give ample assurance of an adequate and profitable market.

We understand that it requires but a small suin-some three or four thousand dollarsto commence these operations in mining profitably; although, perhaps, much larger sums might be advantageously employed. The companies already formed, however not being under the necessity of making great outlays, nor of waiting long for returns, will not be compelled to force large quantities of stock on the market, will be able to realize for themselves the fruit of that sagacity and ener

Some of the most splendid specimens of sculpture and architecture have there been discovered of which any age can boast. How or whence they came to be there, as they are, none can precisely tell. They appear to be of Roman origin, though the intermingling of the gothic would seem to indicate that they were the productions of an age at least later than that which saw Rome in its splendor.

Probably the old town was built soon after the time of the invasion of Gaul by the Romans, and not completed, until perhaps some centuries afterwards.

In the year 1815, one of the wealthy citi zens of the place caused a portion of the best of the ruins to be uncovered, and over the spot to be laid out a large and beautiful garden, with every piece of exhumed sculpture and statuary arranged in precisely the same order as it was when dug up; thus giving the whole a very antique, and, withal, a very imposing appearance. There were the rich porphyry and marble vases, and baths and fountains, and there the delicately wrought pieces of sculpture, all looking like so many costly ornaments in the garden of some oriental monarch.

This magnificent garden, with all its antique furniture, he has generously bequeathed to the town. The corporation, peserving the same good taste, have laid the old ramparts into public promenades, so that the whole upper part of the place wears now the appearance at once of an ancient Roman, and modern French town.

Every step which the curious observer here takes, presents him with some new objects by which to recall the past.-The cathedral of St. Front, undoubtedly one of the oldest of the kind in France, if not in all christendom, still looks down there in its antiquated grandeur upon the multitudes who throng it, forcibly reminding one of some venerable pa

triarch, yet gathering around him in his age his children of other generations- Full fifteen centuries have already elapsed since its first foundation stone was laid. During the sixth century, owing to the assaults of time, and of human barbarity, it had become so far dilapidated as to require to be refitted; but since that period, it has retained nearly the same appearance which it now presents.Within it, the Roman, the Gaul, the Goth, the people of many tribes, have successively bowed and worshipped. At one time, the bigoted Inquisitionist, with mummeries, and compulsory services scarcely less degrading than the disgusting origies of Juggernaut, entered and held it in possession. At another, the more reasonable and sincere Catholic made it the sanctuary of his pious devotions; and, during the later religious wars, we find it constituting one of the grand strong-holds of the Calvinists.-And still it stands, for the occupancy, perhaps, of many yet unborn.

Everything within and around its old walls wears an air of uniqueness. There is none of that showy elegance about it, which is seen in some of our modern churches; nor would we wish to see it thus-shall we call it-deformed? For we love to view these ancient structures just as they were centuries ago. They have a majesty and sacredness about them, for which no modern improvements can compensate.

There also is the amphitheatre, stupendous, though in ruins. We might, indeed, as we gaze there upon that broad arena, almost be led to imagine, that we yet saw the sturdy gladiator meeting in deadly struggle the infuriated beast of prey. We might think that we still were watching those thousands of spectators gazing in breathless solicitude, as he rises in almost superhuman might, and lays triumphantly his gory antagonist at his feet, and were listening to their glad acclaim as he is thence led amid his compeers crowned with his well won laurel wreath. But the illusion vanishes. All is mute. Before us is nought, save the now dilapidated tiers, and crumbling walls and columns. Yet even they are not destitute of awe-inspiring grandeur.

The grand amphitheatre of Antoninus at Rheims, and that at Verona, two of the noblest specimens of Roman architecture now extant, except the colosseum at Rome, great as they are, would hardly stand comparison with this stupendous structure at Perigueux. From appearance 20,000 spectators, at the least estimate, could well have been accommodated.

One would almost be led to suppose that it must have been intended as a rival to that of the metropolis itself; and doubtless it was.For the ruins here everywhere bespeak a profusion of wealth in their construction no less great than that expended on the same in Rome.

Why it is that Perigueux, (or Vesuma, as it was then called,) has thus passed from the

list of cities, and become as one of the cities of the old world, we leave the philosopher and antiquarian to decide. That it has gone, leaving scarcely other than its ornamental ruins to tell the history of its former magnificence, is as unaccountable as it is true.

Whoever now treads over these mouldering, fated remnants of antiquity, with anything of an observing eye, cannot assuredly fail to return awe-struck, both with their grandeur and extent and we wonder that it has not been more often visited by the curious of other lands. They can travel to Rome and Athens by the thousand; but few are found as foreign throngers at the retired, though not unknown and unattractive town of Perigueux.

CYPRIAN.

Selected for the American Penny Magazine. THE CHARACTER AND EXAMPLE OF THE PILGRIMS.

BY PRESIDENT DWIGHT.

Extract from a Sermon preached before the Legislature of Connecticut, at the General Election, May, 1791, by the late President Dwight.

"In our own country, the present period, though not a period of the most absolute declension, will yet furnish a ruler sufficient allurements to a lukewarm temper and limited administration. A bold and steady course of virtuous measures will usually produce opposition and obloquy, and, in a degree, the loss of suffrage, and the loss of reputation. Cabals will undermine, jealousy misconstrue, rivalry misrepresent, and enmity blacken. Thus threatened, alarmed, and wearied, human frailty will be too easily induced to seek the midway, inoffensive course of magistracy: a course, often leading to political safety, but oftener conducting away from duty and righteousness.

"But however frequently timidity and indifference may mark the public or private conduct of those who act in public offices, it is not because they are not furnished by Providence, with motives to strenuous virtue, sufficiently numerous, and sufficiently important.

"In addition to those already suggested in this discourse, the remembrance of what has been done, to establish virtue and piety in this land, and of the blessings which they have produced, presents to the mind one of the most powerful and interesting. Superior to danger, triumphant over persecution, and glowing with piety, our generous ancestors, that they might leave to their children, this best of all legacies, braved every hazard, and overcame every difficulty. Heaven, as if to try, to refine, and to beautify their virtues, to band down to their descendants a glorious example of meek and matchless fortitude, and to give the world an illustrious pattern of Christianity, "enduring to the end," led them to seek a refuge in a distant and savage

wilderness, summoned the tempest to meet them on the ocean, and spread want and disease before them on the land. Chastened, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed, they submitted, yet they endured; they suffered, yet they overcame. Religion was their constant, their angelic guest, a cheering inmate of every dwelling, a divine Paraclete of every heart. This heavenly stranger, since the apostacy of man, and the closure of paradise, had travelled down the gloomy progress of time, and wandered over this inhospitable globe, shut out from the greatest part of human society, and, in most regions, but the guest of a night. Even in Judea, her proper dwelling place, she was often alarmed by violence, and often thrust out by corruption and idolatry; and when the Redeemer of men made that land his earthly residence, though, like him, she went about doing good, yet, like him also, she was shunned and persecuted, and "had not where to lay her head." In the company of his apostles, indeed, with the wisdom, strength, and loveliness which she had derived from his precepts, miracles, and example, she gained a noble, but transient triumph, and saw, with ecstacy, her "still small voice," vanquish for a season, the sophistry of philosophers, the power of emperors, and the furious persecution of ignorance and idolatry. But her transports were soon to terminate. In the midst of her friends, in the temple where her sacred mysteries were celebrated, arose a new and most terrible enemy, and with a deadly wound pierced her to the heart.

AGRICULTURAL.

APPLICATION OF MANURE.

From the Cultivator.-It has been said manure is the raw material of the farmer, from which he manufactures his agricultural products. Much, but not too much has been said in modern days, upon the modes of increasing the raw material. Permit me to call the attention of cultivators; more particularly to its application. A good manufacturer is careful not only in procuring stock, but more especially in working up this stock to good advantage. With too many farmers it seems to be the aim to make and apply manure, not stopping to enquire how it can best be applied. Green and rotted, composted and clear, it is too of ten applied indiscriminately to all kinds of soil, when and where convenience and custom may direct. There can be no question that long manure is best adapted to hoed crops, and well rotted compost for a top dressing. But the principle, to which I would invite particular attention, is that given by the Creator to Adam, and legible

in all nature's works, viz: that seed pro. duces seed after his kind; in other words, that like produces like. Look upon the state. ly trees of the forest. How have they attained their great dimensions? Who has been their cultivator, and what the mode of the cultivator? He who does all things well is their culturist, and their food the decayed leaves and branches that are annually deposited at their roots. Man has been slow in learning the simple principle from the Great Teacher. It is but recently that the vine dressers of France have discovered that the prunings form the best manure for the ground. It has long been observed that hog manure is exceedingly well adapted to a crop of corn. Does not the fact that hogs are generally fatted on corn, furnish the reason for its adaptation? An experiment of a good farmer in this vicinity, bears directly upon the principle. Cutting the top of corn for fodder, he places the bottom stalks between the rows, and upon these stalks he turns back furrows; without further manuring or ploughing, he plants his corn, and his crops are above the average of those in the neighborhood. A similar experiment with potatoes has proved that the tops well covered at the time of digging, will furnish sufficient manure to ensure an equally good crop the succeeding year.Onions, it is well known, succeed best when sowed on the same ground year after year. Is not the rationale found in the fact that the tops are always on the ground? Rye, has been known to grow on the same ground for a course of years, without being diminished, with no other manure than the stubble ploughed in. Chip manure is universally recommended for promoting the growth of young fruit trees. The wherefore is found in the same principle we lay down, that like produces like. Nature has furnished all seeds with nutriment in themselves the best adapted for the future plant. Who can doubt but the pulp of the apple was designed as food for the seed as well as to gratify man's appetite? The blade of wheat and the sprout of the patatoe feed solely upon the parent stock.

The principle we have thus briefly illus. trated and endeavored to prove, has important practical inferences. If the principle is true, no top dressing can be better adapted to grass than the after marth left to decay on the ground. The manure from stock fed on hay should also be applied to grass lands, while that derived from grain should be applied to farinaceous crops. It is not necessary to carry these inferences

further. They will suggest themselves to all readers of reflection.

Extract of a letter from Lee, Ms.
BERKSHIRE.

A Queer Boot-Jack.-A late London Magazine, giving an account of the hunting adventures of the late Major Rogers of the Ceylon Rifles says that he killed, in the course of his life, by his own hand, twelve hundred elephants! Of course he had met with many singular adventures and hair-breadth escapes. One of these adventures is thus related :

"He had just had capital sport with a herd of these animals-his four guns had all been discharged-when an unseen elephant made a charge at him from the skirts of the Jungle. There was no help for it except to run, and for one hundred yards, Maj. Rogers kept just ahead, feeling at every step the animal's trunk trying to insinuate itself round his loins, A turn round a tree gave him momentary advantage, which he made the most of by springing up into the branches (he was as nimble as a cat, and as strong as a lion.) One foot higher! and he would have been out of the elephant's reach; but before he had time to draw up his legs, the elephant had got him properly clenched in the coils of his proboscis. Still, Rogers pulled against him, thinking it better for him to have his leg wrenched from the socket than fall back bodily in the animal's power. The struggle, however, did not last long, for, to the delight of the pursued aud the chagrin of the pursuer, the Wellington boot that the former wore slipped off, extracted the leg, and saved the life of poor Rogers. (Save us from such a boot-jack.) The dilemma, however, did not end here; for the elephant, finding itself balked of its prey, after destroying the boot took up his quarters beneath the branches, and kept his expected victim in the tree for twenty-four hours, when the lappal, or country postman, happening to pass by, Rogers gave him notice of his position, and on this being narrated to the nearest village, the elephant was frightened by tomtoms and yellings. Had this occurred in a deserted part of the Jungle, poor Rogers would inevitably have been starved to death in the tree!"

Arrival Extraordinary.-The brig Indus try, 25 days from St. Croix, brought a tame Lion for the New York Zoological Institute. This little innocent" was re-shipped on board of the steamer for New York, on Saturday evening. During his passage, his Lionship becoming weary of confinement, made a rush, while receiving water, aad escaped from his cage into the hold, where he frolicked about, much to the discomfort of the crew, who were not at all inclined to dispute possession with him. After a sight of goat's flesh, he was lured back to his old quarters. New Haven Courier.

The dog is not only the companion of the idle man, the hunter and sportsman, the playmate of children, and the inseparable friend of old age, but he is often obedient to the yoke, patient and contented under heavy and daily toil. It is true, there is a great difference in the qualities and dispositions of different varieties of the species, though perhaps less than we might imagine, if we had made sufficient experiments to afford us ground to form accurate opinions.

In the northern and most inhospitable parts of our continent, the large native dog is the only member of the animal creation which does not desert man, or turn his enemy. The white bear is kindled to ferocity by the rigors of the climate, and the wolf becomes far more savage and terrible than in other parts of the world. But the dog, although so near of kin to the latter, steps forward with characteristic benevolence, and not only cheers him, as elsewhere, with his unbought and half human friendship, but bows his neck to the yoke, and stepping into the harness which in Lapland would be attatched to the reindeer, exceeds him in docility, and sometimes almost rivals him in speed, as he drags him on his sledge over regions no less cheerless and desolate.

To whitemen, the Esquimau and the Newfoundland dogs have often rendered important services, when venturing into our Boreal regions, on exploring or hunting expeditions, or, with the word of God in their hands, and its spirit glowing in their heart, they have braved the rigors of the north for the benefit of those families of our race, who dwell in the double cold and darkness of a long natural and moral winter.

With loaded sledges Esquimaux sometimes make but slow progress; and so does the Canadian voyageur, or the English North-western trader, as our print represents. How desolate a scene must be presented to the eye from day to day, as the forests rapidly degenerate into groves, they into clusters of stunted fir trees, and ere long only a few shrubs give place to the last traces of vegetation, which, in a thin coating of moss, seem to have written on the rocks a melancholy warning to man to proceed no farther!

MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.-Amos Kendall writes to the Union that the Magnetic Telegraph is compelled to stop (for the present) at Newark; the directors not having succeeded yet in making it cross the Hudson river.