sin. And we may add, that the portion of this valuable mineral region included in Wisconsin is as rich and remunerative as that in the other states. The lead is mixed with copper and zinc, the latter in large quantities, together with some silver. Copper is also found in Douglas, Chippewa, St. Croix and Iowa counties. "In Dodge county, at the so-called iron ridge, is the most promising locality of iron ore in the state yet discovered; but on the Black river, and other branches of the Mississippi, good iron ore occurs. The iron ores of the Lake Superior region extend from Michigan into this state in abundant deposits of the richest quality. The other metallic substances are magnetic iron, iron pyrites, and graphite, or plumbago. The nonmetallic earths are agate, cornelians (found on the shores of the small lakes), bitumen, peat. Marble of a fine qualitiy, some gypsum, saltpetre, and other minerals have been found. A vein of copper ore was discovered in 1848, near the Kickapoo river, which yields about twenty per cent. of copper; but to what extent the bed runs has not been ascertained. Mines were also worked at the Falls of Black River, and in its vicinity; but they have been abandoned. Facts do not justify any expectations of great deposits of copper in the northwest part of the state. A great bed of magnetic iron ore lies south of lake Superior, near Tyler's Fork of the Bad river, in strata of metamorphic state. The amount of lead received at Milwaukee for the year 1863 was 848,625 pounds. On the completion of the southern Wisconsin railroad to Dubuque, it is estimated that 25,000,000 pounds will seek an outlet at Milwaukee. Beautiful varieties of marble have been recently discovered, or made known to the public, in the nothern part of Wisconsin. According to Messrs. Foster and Whitney's report, they are found on the Michigamig and Menominee rivers, and afford beautiful marbles, whose prevailing color is light pink, traversed by. veins or seams of deep red. Others are blue and dove-colored, beautifully veined. These are susceptible of a fine polish; and some on the Menominee are within navigable distance from the lakes."*

The lakes and rivers of Wisconsin are invested with much of beauty. Besides the great lakes, Superior and Michigan, which bound the state of Wisconsin on the north and east, the state *Lippincott's Gazetteer.

contains a number of smaller lakes. Many of these are noted for unrivalled natural scenery. The principal of these is lake Winnebago, a short distance southeast from the centre of the state. It is about twenty-eight miles long, and ten miles wide, and communicates with Green Bay, a northwestern arm of lake Michigan, through the Fox, or Neenah river. "These small lakes are most abundant in the northwest, and are generally characterized by clear water and gravelly bottoms, often with bold, picturesque shores, crowned with hemlock, spruce and other trees. They afford excellent fish. In the shallow waters on the margins of some of them grows wild rice, once an important article of food with the savages of this region."*

The rivers which traverse the interior, for the most part, flow generally in a southwest direction, discharging their waters into the Mississippi. The latter river bounds Wisconsin on the southwest for more than two hundred miles. Commencing on this line at the south, we have, in their order, the Wisconsin, Bad Axe, Black, and Chippewa rivers. Of these, the largest is the Wisconsin, which flows nearly directly south for over two hundred miles, and then west about a hundred miles, into the Mississippi. It is navigable for steamboats for nearly two hundred miles. The Chippewa is about two hundred, and the Black about a hundred and fifty miles long. The Fox river, or Neenah, is the outlet of Winnebago lake, and connects it with Green Bay. The Wolf river, from the north, is the main supply to this lake. The Menominee emptying into Green Bay, and the Montreal into Lake Superior, are very serviceable streams for manufacturing purposes. These rivers form part of the northeast boundary of Wisconsin. "The Menominee has a descent of 1,049 feet. The St. Louis (considered as the primary source of the St Lawrence) coasts this state for twenty or thirty miles on the northwest, and is full of rapids and falls in this part of its course. These rivers are not generally favorable to navigation without artificial aid. The Wisconsin may be ascended by steamboats to the rapids, where it ap proaches a tributary of lake Winnebago, within a mile and a half, where a canal is being constructed, which, when completed, will open an entire inland navigation from New York to the Upper

* Lippincott's Gazetteer.

Mississippi. The Rock river is sometimes, at high water, ascended by boats to within the limits of Wisconsin. The Bad Axe, Black, Chippewa, and St. Croix are important channels for floating timber to market from the pine regions in the northwest of the state. The rivers flowing into lake Superior are small; and, though unfavorable for commerce, their rapid courses make them valuable for mill-sites. Col. Long estimates that the Chippewa, Black, Wisconsin, and Rock rivers are respectively capable of a steamboat navigation of seventy, sixty, a hundred and eighty, and two hundred and fifty miles; but at present they are a good deal obstructed by shifting sand and rapids."*

The climate, though quite severe in winter, is free from those sudden changes that prevail farther south. The summers are warm; the winters, cold, and usually very long; but upon the whole, for general health, Wisconsin may be regarded as the most desirable place of residence. The natural scenery is not excelled for beauty in North America; while, on the other hand, in many of its rivers, inland lakes, and mounds and dells, it presents features of marvellous beauty far surpassing other localities.

The climate of Wisconsin is more favorable to the raising of good crops than is generally supposed. The winters are long and severe, but the temperature is somewhat mitigated by the lake breezes. The summers are warm, but pleasant. The state is healthy as a general rule, and is less liable than cther new places to the discases incident to new settlements, owing to the openness of the country. "The soil, as a general rule, is fertile, and is productive, even in the mineral regions of the north. The best lands are on the prairies, where the soil consists of a dark brown vegetable mould, from one to two feet in depth, very mellow, and entirely destitute of stones or gravel.” †

Wisconsin possesses abundant timber resources, and an immense lumbering business is carried on in many of the northern and western counties, the pineries of Marathon, Chippewa, Clark, Wood, St. Croix, and other counties, furnishing many millions of feet of logs and lumber annually. Our Clark correspondent claims that 100,000,000 feet of pine timber is cut each year in that county alone; while in Monroe 30,000,000 feet is annually *Lippincott's Gazetteer. The "Great Republic."

cut into lumber by about twenty mills. Hard wood timber also abounds in all parts of the state, and there are few counties without sufficient wood for local uses. The lumbering business is a source of great profit to those engaged in it, and in Brown county parties boast of cutting enough white pine logs from eighty acres to net $1200 to $1500.

In 1870, from 5,795,538 acres of improved land, the returns were as follows, as they have been steadily increasing each year

The state of Minnesota has an area of 83,531 square miles, and is situated between 43° 30′ and 49° N. latitude, and between 89° 30 and 97° W. longitude. It is bounded on the north by British America, on the east by Lake Superior and Wisconsin, on the south by Iowa, and on the west by Dakota Territory.

The

topography of the state is quite diversified. Although Minnesota is not a mountainous country," says Col. Girat Hewitt, of St. Paul, “its general elevation gives it all the advantages of one, without its objectionable features. Being equidistant from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, situated on an elevated plateau,

and with a system of lakes and rivers ample for an empire, it has a peculiar climate of its own, possessed by no other state. The general surface of the greater part of the state is even and undulating, and pleasantly diversified with rolling prairies, vast belts of timber, oak openings, numerous lakes and streams, with their accompanying meadows, waterfalls, wooded ravines and lofty bluffs, which impart variety, grandeur and picturesque beauty to its scenery. * * The Mississippi river, 2,400 miles long, which drains a larger region of country than any stream on the globe, with the exception of the Amazon, rises in Lake Itasca, in the northern part of Minnesota, and flows southeasterly through the state 797 miles, 134 of which forms its eastern boundary. It is navigable for large boats to St. Paul, and above the falls of St. Anthony for smaller boats for about 150 miles farther. The season of navigation has opened as early as the 25th of March, but usually opens from the first to the middle of April, and closes between the middle of November and the first of December. In 1865 and 1866, steamboat excursions took place on the first of December, from St. Paul, and the river remained open several days longer; in 1867, until December 1st. The principal towns and cities on the Mississippi in Minnesota are, Winona, Wabashaw, Lake City, Red Wing, Hastings, St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Anthony, Anoka, Dayton, Monticello, St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Little Falls, Watab. The Minnesota river, the source of which is among the Coteau des Prairies, in Dakota territory, flows from Big Stone lake, on the western boundary of the state, a distance of nearly 500 miles, through the heart of the southwestern part of the state, and empties into the Mississippi at Fort Snelling, 5 miles above St. Paul. It is navigable as high up as the Yellow Medicine, 238 miles above its mouth during good stages of water. Its principal places are Shakopee, Chaska, Carver, Belle Plaine, Hen· derson, Le Sueur, Traverse des Sioux, St. Peter, Mankato, and New Ulm. The St. Croix river, rising in Wisconsin, near Lake Superior, forms about 130 miles of the eastern boundary of the state. It empties into the Mississippi nearly opposite Hastings, and is navigable to Taylor's Falls, about 50 miles. It penetrates the pineries, and furnishes immense water power along its course. The principal places on it are Stillwater and Taylor's Falls. The