"Here our operations, in this quarter, ended. The metal was probably within our reach, but, if we had found it, the expense of carrying it to Montreal must have exceeded its marketable value. It was never for the exportation of copper that our company was formed, but always with a view to the silver, which it was hoped the ores, whether of copper or lead, might in sufficient quantity contain."--_Travels and Adventures of Alexander Henry._ [In the summer of 1832, being detained by head winds at the mouth of Miner's River, on Lake Superior, I observed the names of several persons engraved on the sand rock, but much obliterated by the water's dashing over the rock. Tradition represents that Henry's miners were detained there, and that they made explorations of the river, which is named from the circumstance. The stream is a mere brook, coming over the shelving sand rock, which is a part of the precipitous range of the Pictured Rocks.] Sir A. Mackenzie passed through Lake Superior, on his first voyage of discovery, in 1789. He remarks: "At the River Tennagon (Ontonagon) is found a quantity of virgin copper. The Americans, soon after they got possession of the country, sent an agent thither; and I should not be surprised to hear of their employing people to work the mine. Indeed, it might be well worthy the attention of the British subjects to work the mines on the north coast, though they are not supposed to be so rich as those on the south."--_Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America._ It is difficult to conceive what, however, is apparent, from the references of Dr. Franklin to the subject, that the supposed mineral riches of Lake Superior had an important bearing on the discussions for settling the ultimate northern boundary of the United States. The British ambassadors had, it seems, from an old map which is before me, claimed a line through the Straits of Michilimackinac and the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, to the Gulf of Mexico. The attention of the United States Government appears first to have been turned toward the subject during the administration of President John Adams, when the sudden augmentation of the navy rendered the employment of copper in the equipment of ships an object of moment. A mission was therefore authorized to proceed to Lake Superior, of the success of which, as it has not been communicated to the public, nothing can, with certainty, be stated; but from inquiries which have been made during the recent expedition, it is rendered probable that the actual state of our Indian relations, at the time, arrested the advance of the officer into the region where the most valuable beds of copper were supposed to exist, and that the specimens transmitted to Government were procured through the instrumentality of some friendly Indians, employed for the purpose.