FISCAL RESOURCES, NATIONAL DEBT, ETC. Tonnage of the United States.. Tonnage, value of..... Indirect trade..... Aggregate value of imports in the year 1860...dollars Aggregate value of exports... Value of imports under the reciprocity treaty.... Fisheries, the products of 1860 ..dollars Excess of specie and bullion imports over exports.. .... Total of the national debt December 1, 1861.... 334,350,453 248,505,454 20,019,427 ..tons 5,539,813 221,592,092 34,224,444 12,924,092 16,548,531 40,452,784 267,540,035 Estimated quantity of coin in the U. S.$275,000,000 to 40,000 Length of lines of telegraph.... For the construction of a railroad, with branches, from The number of principal colleges and professional schools in the United States, including theological, law, and medical, in 1860, was 233. By an act of Congress of July 2, 1862, about 10,000,000 acres of public lands were appropriated for the support of colleges and schools for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts in the several States and Territories of the Union. Five millions of persons received instruction in the educational institutions of the United States in the year ending June, 1860. The system of common school education has been adopted in nearly all the free States. THE BRITISH CONSUL AT CHARLESTON ON THE COTTON CROP. The British Foreign Office had issued a letter written by Mr. BUNCH, the British Consul at Charleston, touching the quantity of cotton now in the Southern States. This letter is dated 13th of August last, and Mr. BUNCH professes to have been at some pains to collect his information, and thinks it may be depended upon. He says:-"There can be but little doubt that the crop of 1862 would, under ordinary circumstances, have reached 4,500,000 bales, but in consequence of the civil war not more than 1,500,000 have been planted. It is thought by some that the present crop will not exceed 1,000,000 bales, but I have reason to believe that the supply from Texas has been under estimated. That State has been, as yet, very little disturbed by military operations, so that agriculture has been less interfered with than elsewhere. On the banks of the Mississippi verv little cotton has been planted, as the danger is too great. It is only in the interior of the various States, at a distance from the great rivers, that the crop of this year is to be found. "The crop of 1860 was disposed of, and, in a considerable measure exported, before the blockade of the Southern ports was established, but it is calculated that 750,000 bales still remain on hand. Of these about "The crop of 1861 amounted to about 2,750,000 bales. 1,000,000 have been destroyed at various places, to prevent their falling into the hands of the federals; the rest is stored in the interior of the diferent States. Much of it has been bought by foreigners, who hope to preserve it as neutral property through all the dangers of the war. "About 50,000 bales have run the blockade successfully, chiefly to Nassau. One cargo has gone to Barcelona and one to France. I do not take into account the product of the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. They are in the possession of the federals, and I have no means of ascertaining whether any cotton at all has been grown there during the present season. "The amount, therefore, of cotton remaining in the Southern States at this date, which might be available to foreign commerce as soon as the blockade is removed, may be said to stand thus: "It must, of course, be remembered, that a portion or the whole of this accumulation may be destroyed at any moment by the Southern people." HUNGARIAN WINES. Hungary produces a great variety of wines, both white and red, and in immense quantity, being in fact, next to France, the greatest wine producing country in the world-the annual production of France and Hungary respectively being as seven to four The peculiar geographical position of the latter country, however, and the jealousy with Austria has hitherto guarded her from all communication with the outer world, kept her wines, with a few exceptions, until within the last ten years, entirely out of the world's markets. The exception were Tokay, "Imperial Tokay," and Menes and Ruszt, the white and red liqueur wines of the country, which two centuries ago were the prime rarities at all the royal tables of Europe. Of Tokay we have had extremely little experience in this country. When Prince METTERNICH was Ambassador to the Prince Regent of England he introduced it to the banquets of Carlton-house and Pavillion, adding-which was a pure invention of his own--that it was only produced on one of his estates. The truth is, that there is a whole hill district of about five miles square in which the Tokay wine is made, and so precious is it deemed that every magnet in the whole country holds a small farm in this favoured spot. One cause of the rarity of this extraordinary wine is, that it can only, in the best sort, it is asserted, be made from grapes which have dried on the vine, and as this only happens in exceptionally hot summers, the vintage takes place at long and irregular intervals. Even then the juice of the grape is reduced to the strongest essence, and from this the wine is made. The red liqueur wines, "Menes" and "Ruszt," go through the same process, and, when genuine, are of the same rarity and value. For Tokay a virtue is claimed which will cause many to think it cheap at any price. It is said to have peculiarly strengthening and restorative properties for persons at an advanced period of life. It is asserted that the famous life-prolonging draught with which the late Princess LIEVEN was wont to oblige her particular friends, was nothing but Tokay of the finest vintage. About 2000 bottles is the whole stock of the genuine article now to be found in all Hungary, and the character claimed for it is that it is "the beau ideal of liqueurs, clear as oil, thick as honey, pungent as either, and a grand restorative for the aged and debilitated." But, descending from the almost inapproachable Tokay, and Menes, and Rustz, which are all three classed under the musical name of "Aszu," or sweet wines, and only used as liqueurs and restoratives, Hungary produces the finest red and white wines, the former rivalling claret and Burgundy, and some of them "humble port" in flavour, but far surpassing them in purity and aroma; and the latter, the finest "dry" table wines in the world. They are produced in such abundance that adulteration is never thought of; and with relaxed Austrian fiscal regulations, and improved means of transit, they could be sold in the markets of the world at the most moderate prices. JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART. 1. WONDERFUL COPPER DISCOVERY IN THE PORTAGE LAKE DISTRICT. 2. PETROLEUM-ITS US■ AS A FUEL. 3. THE DISCOVERY OF SHOT-MAKING. 4. THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. WONDERFUL COPPER DISCOVERY IN THE PORTAGE LAKE DISTRICT. SOME two weeks ago says the Lake Superior News and Journal of Oct. 31st, a huge mass of float copper, weighing at least twenty tons, was discovered on the location of the Mesnard Mine, at Portage Lake. In size it was some sixteen feet long, four wide, and one-and-a-half thick, which is by far the largest float mass ever before found upon the Lake. Such being its prodigious weight, it was patent that it came from a vein near by, as it was impossible that any human agency known to exist in the past, could have moved it a great distance. Beneath it, charcoal was found, and also stone hammers, indicating plainly that the ancient miners, whose history is unwritten, and of whom nothing is known except as traces of their workings are thus found, had either taken it from its original bed and placed it in fire, in order to burn the rock from it, or finding it upon the spot where it was now discovered, placed it in the fire for the same purpose. We find those who are of the opinion it was never put in the place where it was found by human agency, for the reason that a large amount of the float copper in small masses, weighing from a half pound to fifty, are found scattered immediately around it. Already some two tons have been gathered, and whose existence in proximity with the large mass, would indicate that water and ice may have been the agencies by which they were thus moved and scattered from their original resting place. The agency, however, by which they were thus placed over the surface, it is not so important to know, as their existence, and the more important fact to which they point, viz: that they must have come from some vein near at hand. With this conviction, simultaneously with the cutting up of the huge mass, and the collecting of the smaller ones, the work of a most thorough exploration was begun, in order to find the vein from which they came. What was thus reasonably manifest, seems to have been accomplished, for the work of a few days uncovered, about forty feet distant from the huge float, a mass of still larger dimensions in the vein itself. At last accounts, this new wonder had been stripped some five feet in breadth for a length of twelve feet, and three thick, with no indication of growing less at any point. It is opened sufficiently to indicate that it will far exceed the float mass. The vein in which it is found has been known for years. It runs through the Quincy, Pewabic, Franklin, Pontiac, Albany, and Boston, &c., and they all, in the value of their stock, must at least feel the effect of this developement. The vein is of the Epidote character, but from some cause seems to spread and soften at the spot of this discovery. We have heard it described as an Amygdaloid belt of the Epidote character. The agent of this thus fortunate mine, is prosecuting the work of opening the vein with diligence, employing all the labor he can obtain. The general impression among the oldest and ablest mining men is that a vein of extraordinary richness has been struck, which will add new interest to this heretofore wonderful district. Portage Lake is the general name by which that section is known. The Lake itself is an inland body of water, cutting the range nearly east and west but whose general course is south-east and north west. Its outlet is into the west side of Keweenaw Bay, and has been made navigable for first-class steamers. This, however, has been secured by dredging out the channel at its confluence with the bay, and building piers on each side to protect it from the action of the waves. A number of its shortest bends have also been abandoned, and new channels cut, while others have been greatly improved, which was easily done, the shores of the outlet being marshy. These improvements have cost about $50,000; but the parties making them have organized themselves into a corporation, known as the "Portage River Improvement Company," and levied a toll upon all articles passing either way until they shall have been reimbursed. This toll is a small consideration to the benefits conferred, as steamers now pass in and out, by day or by night, at pleasure. This Lake, with its outlet, extends nearly across the base of Keweenaw Point-there being a portage of only two miles between its north-western extremity and Lake Superior-one half of which distance is low marshy land, which can be easily opened, while the remaining mile, through dry land is low-simply a sand beach covered with Norway pine. There is no question but that what is now Portage Lake was, at one time, simply a vein of Lake Superior, connecting its waters on the west side of Keweenaw Point with those of Keweenaw Bay, thus leaving the point itself an island; nor have we any question but that the day is hastening when this short portage will again be opened, and made to contribute to the security and dispatch of commerce. It is estimated that $100,000 judiciously expended, would so open it as to permit the passage of steamers and vessels. This would secure at once the double advantage of shortening the distance from Portage Lake ports, to those above nearly one hundred miles, and affording a good and secure harbor on a dangerous coast now without one; while every west wind would cause a current of pure fresh water to course through this passage, the value of which to health cannot be estimated. This channel, from the outlet of Portage Lake, to where, if thus opened, it would again connect with Lake Superior, would be about twenty-six miles in length, with an average depth of fifty feet, and half a mile in width, It cuts the copper range nearly midway from the Bay to the Lake, it being fourteen miles from this point by Portage Lake to Keweenaw Bay, and twelve to Lake Superior. Upon each side the hills of trap rock rise at an angle of some twenty degrees to a height of five and six hundred feet. Up these angles, and on these summits, are located copper mines of remarkable richness, that are being worked with great vigor and success. At their base are located the villages of Houghton and Hancock. PETROLEUM-ITS USE AS A FUEL. Few but those who have visited France, can form any idea of the high price of fuel in that country, or of the vast variety of methods which are employed to economize this necessary of life. Patents, without number, have been granted in France for the manufacture of "artificial fuel." In |