On The Percentage of Iron in Certain Ores

DURING the summer of 1875 I visited some of the iron mines of Houghton County, Mich., and was quite interested to observe the progress made there within a. few years. Working in open pits is gradually giving place to underground work in most of the mines where this system is practicable. In some cases, as in the Lake Superior Mine, the body of ore is so irregular, and the deposit so liable at any time to be pinched out, or nearly so, that it has been found impractical, if not impossible, to lay out any plan for systematic underground work. But in many other mines the deposit is so regular in character, that the work can be laid out in shafts at regu¬lar intervals, and a series of 60 feet levels. The Michigammi Mine, opened in 1872, and first worked in 1873, is arranged on this plan, though some quarrying is still done. But the men are being put at overhead stoping as fast as it can be got ready for them, and before long it will all be worked in this way. The New York Mine is undergoing a similar change to the pillar system, and several others have either been changed, or it is about to be done. My principal object in visiting this region was to obtain samples from some of the important mines, so as to be able to answer the question : "What is the average percentage of iron in the Lake Superior ores?" Most iron furnaces work on mixtures of ore, so that it is impossible to tell, from their records, just the percentage in each one.