the Pilot Knob has never been used for casting purposes, but, some few years ago, edgetools were manufactured and forged from the crude ore. The quantity of pig iron produced at present is about ten tons per day, performed by four discharges in twenty-four hours, but the present furnace having given way, it must be replaced by a more substantial and larger one, which is estimated to produce twenty tons per day. The distance from the Iron Mountain to the landing on the Mississippi River, is 40 miles, and it costs but one-quarter of a cent per pound for transportation. I met twelve wagons, loaded with pig metal, each having four thousand pounds, and performing the trip in four days, at an expense of ten dollars each.

The Iron Mountain proper is about a mile and a half long, and about one mile broad,— or rather more than a section of land; while the Pilot Knob is twice as high as the Iron Mountain, but has not so much surface. Here you travel upon nothing but iron lumps as far as the eye can reach; there you see the whole top of the mountain forming one sheet of iron. Here they have penetrated but ten feet into the ground-the surface iron being all too large lumps-while, at the Pilot Knob, they have penetrated, on the summit and at the base, at least two hundred and fifty feet. The iron ore found here is of the richest kind, it yields at least 60 per cent of pig metal, and I saw but very few slugs lying about the furnace. At St. Louis, they prefer the pig iron from the Iron Mountain, to that of Tennessee. The company intend making, in a short time, 20 tons per day, or 7,500 tons per annum. It would pay a profit to export the ore to other States for smelting, where fuel is more abundant. The supply of the ore in this region is inexhaustible.

The Iron Mountain is one mile broad, four hundred and forty-four feet high, and three miles long. The lumps of iron increase in size ascending towards the summit. The Pilot Knob is the highest peak of mountains in the whole neighborhood, and cannot be less than fifteen hundred feet high; it is said to be a mile from the base to the summit, but this appears highly incredible. The iron ore is a micaceous oxide of iron, but not a magnetic oxide, as some former writers have called it.

From a careful calculation which I have made of the cubic feet of ore imbedded in the mountains, the quantity of pig iron may be put down at six hundred millions of tons. I have examined all the lead districts, and several copper mines; have seen cobalt, nickle, zinc, calamine, manganese, barytes, and a great many valuable minerals which this State produces, which I may refer to in a future communication.

I am, in haste, your friend,

LEWIS FEUCHTWANGER.

AUSTRALIAN COPPER ORE.

A vessel arrived in London, from Port Adelaide and the Cape of Good Hope, respectively, brought, in addition to a very extensive cargo, the large quantity of 600 tons weight of copper ore from the Australian port first mentioned, the production of the place. It is stated that there is a conical hill of copper near Mount Arden, in South Australia, which is reported to be literally a mass of copper that it would take ages to remove.

EXTRACTING SILVER FROM LEAD.

The mines of Wanlockhead, in Scotland, the property of his Grace, the Duke of Buccleuch, are now wrought with spirit and enterprise by the noble proprietor. At the smelt mills, refining apparatus for separating the silver from the lead ore has been erected. It was set in motion on October 12th, 1846, for the first time, when a plate of silver, 104 pounds weight, was extracted from the lead. The yield averages from 7 to 13 ounces of silver to one ton of lead, and the ore that yields the latter quantity may be considered among the richest specimens in Scotland.

ROCHESTER FLOUR MANUFACTURE AND TRADE.

The Rochester Daily Democrat furnishes the following statement of the quantity of flour shipped East from the city of Rochester, on the Erie Canal, for three seasons, as follows:

The increase of the shipments in 1846 over 1845, is 21,814 barrels ; over 1844, 139,854 barrels. The quantity sent forward by railroad before the opening of navigation, and the amount that will go forward between the 1st of December and the 1st of January, together with the quantity consumed by 27,000 inhabitants, will show an aggregate of over 600,000 barrels manufactured in Rochester during the year.

Eighteen flouring-mills, containing 92 run of stone, were employed in the season of 1846. This force will be increased in 1847 by the addition of two new mills, and eight run of stone. Horace P. Smith has nearly completed a new mill, 65 feet by 45, and four stories high, on the site of the old Smith mills-which were destroyed by fire two or three years ago which will be ready for operation early in the Spring of 1847. Mr. Thorn has commenced the erection of a new flouring-mill on the river, in rear of Barton & Belden's edge-tool factory, which will also be ready for business in the Spring. The amount of capital invested, and used directly in the flour business, cannot be less than $3,500,000. The State derives an annual revenue from this branch of manufactures of over $135,000. The following is a list of the mills, with the names of their occupants:—

LEAD MINES AND TRADE OF THE WEST.

Dr. Owen, who was appointed by the government to make an examination of the mineral lands of Iowa and Wisconsin, states, as the result of his inquiries, that the region produces at this moment nearly as much lead as the whole of Europe, with the exception of Great Britain, and that it has indisputable capacities of producing as much lead as all Europe, Great Britain included.

The arrivals at New Orleans, annually, have been as follows, viz :—

The lowest price obtained for lead sold in New York, within ten years, was 2 cents, twelve months' credit, and the highest 8 cents, sixty days-the former in 1830, and the latter in 1836.

MANUFACTURE OF RAILROAD IRON IN THE UNITED STATES.

It is stated in the Miners' Journal, that during the year 1814, the first bar of railroad iron was manufactured in the United States. We also learn, from the same source, that the following establishments are in operation, or almost completed :

"Of the above-mentioned works, all are in operation, except four or five, which are now in process of construction, and nearly finished. It will be seen that they are of sufficient capacity to make 119,000 tons of railroad iron per annum, equal to 2,288 tons per week, or 32 tons per day. For a mile of railroad, with a heavy track, about ninety tons of iron are required. It will be seen, therefore, that iron enough can be manufactured in the United States to lay four miles per day, or twelve hundred miles per year. When we reflect that only two years have elapsed since the first ton of railroad iron was made in this country, it sceras almost incredible that so much has been accomplished in co short a time.

"In producing the amount of railroad iron mentioned above, 300,000 tens of iron ore are used. It is impossible to state accurately the number of hands employed in manufac turing the iron from the time the ore is dug, until the rails are finished at the rolling mill. "Many thousands, however, are engaged in this department, and its prosperity is intimately connected with that of a large portion of the laboring classes in the State, and while it is estimated that five tons of coal are used in the manufacture of every ton of railroad iron, giving an aggregate of 595,000 tons of coal used for this purpose, nearly all of which is anthracite, the fact is sufficient to show the important relation which this branch of the iron business holds to the anthracite coal trade of Pennsylvania, and how disastrous would be the effects upon that trade, if these establishments should, from any cause, be compelled to suspend operations."

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

STATISTICS OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY.

THE following statistics, &c., of the American Whale Fishery, carefully prepared by HENRY P. HAVEN, Esq., of New London, Conn., may be relied upon for their general accuracy. The information was elicited by certain inquiries propounded for the consideration of that gentleman by WM. H. STARR, Esq., of New York, with the view of its publication in the Merchants' Magazine; and to the interest which Mr. Starr takes in our Journal, as the organ of the commercial interests, as well as in the industrial pursuits of our country, our readers are indebted for the present statement.

The whaling fleet of the United States consisted, on the 1st November, 1846, of 668 ships and barks, 27 brigs, 19 schooners, and 1 sloop, with a total tonnage of 228,757 tons, owned in the following places :

668

27

19 & 1 sl. 715

228,757

Total........ In this statement are included 2 ships at New Bedford, 3 at Sag Harbor, and 1 at Edgartown, which have heretofore been in the whaling business, but are now (perhaps temporarily) employed in the merchant service. Also, the ship Jane, of Warren, considered as a missing ship-last reported full, bound home, in Nov. 1845. Of this large fleet, only 58 vessels were in port on the 1st of Nov. 1846; 6 are in the merchant service, 1 in the Davis Straits fishery, and the remainder, 650, now at sea, in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

The rapid increase of this large branch of our commerce, may be shown from the following statement:

WHALING VESSELS OWNED IN THE UNITED STATES.

While, as here shown, the Americans have prosecuted successfully, for a long series of years, the whale fishery, the English have, during the same time, been gradually reducing their fleet. In 1833, 110 sperm whale ships arrived in England, and on the 1st of January, 1816, only 43 whalers from Great Britain were afloat in the southern sperm and right whale fishery, with a prospect of still further reduction, and as the high protective duties of the English government on oils and bone have been much reduced, and will soon expire altogether, it is very improbable that any revival will take place there. The English have about 45 ships in the north whale fishery, among the ice, where Yankee enterprise has left them undisturbed until the present year; when the ship McLellan, from New London, being it is said the first American vessel which ever visited those seas, made a voyage to Davis Straits, but owing to the large quantities of ice, was unable to reach the whaling ground, and returned with only one fish.

The French may be said to emulate the Americans, with much better results than the more lethargic Englishman. They have now forty ships in the southern right whale fishery, and it is believed, have pursued the business with profit, for several years. A few ships in Bremen, and other northern ports in Europe, not exceeding probably twenty in all, with perhaps forty from New Holland and other British colonies, include the whaling fleet of the world, numbering about 900 vessels. The largest ship of this flect, is the Atlantic, of New Loudon, 6993 tons, and the smallest is probably the schooner Garland, also of New London, 49 tons.

It is believed that very few not particularly familiar with the details of the whale fishery, are aware of the large amount of capital and enterprise which is invested in this business, in the United States, and few have probably realized how much the hardy whalemen and adventurous owners have contributed to the wealth of the nation. The valuable cargoes with which the ships return are drawn entirely from the deep, and it is emphatically an American enterprise; built and owned as the ships are by Americans, and navigated by a crew, at least two-thirds of which, by law, must be citizens of the United States, and who receive one-third of the oil and bone taken, for their services. The outfits of the ship each voyage also consist of provisions, stores, sails, rigging, &c. &c., which are almost entirely the produce of our own country. Thus we purchase the return cargo with our agricultural and mechanical labor, and thus draw treasures from the seas, to supply our own wants and luxuries; and a market has always been found in Europe for our surplus. But these facts will be more clearly seen from the following statements, carefully compiled from authentic sources.

The amount of capital invested in the whale fishery is estimated as follows:

668 ships and barks will cost an average, when fitted for sea, of $29,000...$19,372,000

It is believed that this is a low estimate; and some persons whose experience aids their judgment, would make it over $20,000,000.

The following table shows the import of whale and sperm oil into the United States,