The most important deposits of steel ores in the United States are on Lake Superior and in Missouri; but these ores are smelted chiefly by the Connellsville coke of Pennsylvania, which is 700 to 800 miles distant. The Cranberry ores of North Carolina are some hundreds of miles from fuel. A late number of the _Iron Trade Review_ quotes the prices of ore at Cleveland, Ohio, the principal receiving point of Lake Superior ores, as follows: Specular and Magnetic Bessemer, per ton $7.00 to $7.50 Bessemer Hematites " 5.75 to 6.70 [Sidenote: Cost of producing ore in Pennsylvania.] The same authority gives the cost of the ore and coke necessary for the production of a ton of iron in Mahoning Valley district, at $9.90 for the ore and $4.50 for the coke = $14.40. To this must be added about $4.25 for flux, labor, management, interest and repairs, making a total of $18.65 as the cost of producing one ton of pig-metal. [Sidenote: Cost of Bessemer-pig in Snoqualmie Valley.] Thus the superior advantages of the Snoqualmie Valley are readily seen. Here are steel ores, two kinds of fuel, and the limestone in close proximity. Putting the fuel at more than I think it would cost; putting the cost of mining the ore at the maximum cost at Cranberry, N. C., and freight at double price, and we have as the cost of a ton of Bessemer-pig, as follows: Ore $3 00 Fuel 6 00 Flux 50 Labor and management 2 00 Interest and repairs 1 50 ------ $13 00 [Sidenote: Large market for steel rails.] This is lower than the present cost of producing Bessemer-pig anywhere in the United States, according to the best of my information; and at the same time the market is better. The demand for steel rails in the Rocky Mountain country and in the Pacific States is, and will be, large and permanent, while the demand in China and other foreign countries will constantly increase. And so will it be with machinery and tools of all kinds, agricultural, mining and manufacturing. This demand will be both domestic and foreign, and constantly enlarging. And it may be safely asserted that no railroad exists, or can be built anywhere in the Pacific States, which will compare with the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway in its control of the iron business. THE OTHER MINERALS. [Sidenote: Limestone.] [Sidenote: Marble, granite, sandstones, slates.]