NEW NORWEGIAN TARIFF.

A letter recently received in this country from a reliable source at Stockholm, furnishes information which cannot fail to be interesting to persons engaged in the trade between the United States and Sweden and Norway, and to the readers of the Merchants' Magazine generally. Extracts from the communication referred to are subjoined.

"STOCKHOLM, August 1, 1848. "The Norwegian Storthing has recently adopted a new Tariff. The document in question is dated at Christiania, the 31st day of May, and will continue in force from its commencement, July 1, 1848, to the same date in 1851.

"Since the receipt of this Tariff, I have employed considerable time in a minute examination of its contents, and now submit an extract of such duties as bear especially on articles of American produce and manufacture.

"It may be remarked, in advance, that the Norwegian weights and measures are the same as those of Denmark. Their relative value and capacity-compared with those of the United States-will be found in the latter pages of this despatch.

"Adopting an alphabetical arrangement of the Norwegian Tariff, we extract the following duties:

"As to Norwegian weights and measures, it may be remarked that the pound is about one-tenth greater than that of the United States, giving actually for each 100 pounds Norwegian, 110 25-100 avoirdupois.

"The lispound contains 16 Norwegian, or about 17 English pounds.

"The Toende,' which has been translated barrels' in the extracts given, may be estimated at a trifle less than 4 English bushels. When great is required, its contents are expressed by 3,950 bushels and decimals, being a very near approximation to the amount first stated.

"With 1,400 miles of sea-coast to protect from smuggling, the Norwegians have acted far more wisely than their neighbors. They have admitted many articles to the ports of Bod and Troms at half rates of duty, while at Hammerfert, Vard and Vads, they are duty free."

TARIFF REGULATIONS FOR CALIFORNIA.

The following circular, addressed by the Secretary of the Treasury to collectors and other officers of the customs, is published in the Merchants' Magazine for the information of merchants trading with that part of the American Union :

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, October 7th, 1848.

On the 30th of May last, upon the exchange of ratifications of our treaty with Mexico, California became a part of the American Union; in consequence of which, various questions have been presented by merchants and collectors for the decision of this department. By the Constitution of the United States it is declared that "all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land." By the treaty with Mexico, California is annexed to this Republic, and the Constitution of the United States is extended over that territory, and is in full force throughout its limits. Congress, also, by several enactments subsequent to the ratification of the treaty, have distinctly recognized California as a part of the Union, and have extended over it in several important particulars the laws of the United States.

Under these circumstances the following instructions are issued by this department:1st. All articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of California, shipped therefrom at any time since the 30th of May last, are entitled to admission free of duty into all the ports of the United States.

2d. All articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States are entitled to admission free of duty into California, as are also all foreign goods which are exempt from duty by the laws of Congress, or on which goods the duties prescribed by those laws have been paid to any collector of the United States, previous to their introduction into California.

3d. Although the Constitution of the United States extends to California, and Congress have recognized it by law as a part of the Union, and legislated for it as such, yet it is not brought by law within the limits of any collection district, nor has Congress author. ized the appointment of any officers to collect the revenue accruing on the import of foreign dutiable goods into that territory. Under these circumstances, although this depart

ment may be unable to collect the duties accruing on importations from foreign countries into California, yet, if foreign dutiable goods should be introduced there and shipped thence to any port or place of the United States, they will be subject to duty, as also to all the penalties prescribed by law when such importation is attempted without the payment of duties. R. J. WALKER, Secretary of the Treasury.

NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

TO RIO AND OTHER TRADERS AND NAVIGATORS.

NATIONAL OBSERVATORY, Washington, August 9th, 1848. THE brig Oceanus, Captain Sullivan, with the wind and current charts on board, sailed March 13th, 1848, from Boston bound to Rio, where she arrived July 8th, after a passage of 117 days.

It is known that Captain Sullivan set out with the intention of taking the new route to the Equator. I say to the Equator, for at that time the Rio sheet was not published, and I had given no sailing directions as to going south from the Equator, further than to express the opinion that vessels would find no difficulty in weathering Cape St. Roque from the point where the new route requires them to cross the Equator.

Had Captain Sullivan been provided with the sailing directions which have since been given for clearing St. Roque, (which it was impossible for him to have,) and had he followed them with as much confidence as he did those for reaching the Equator, there is every reason for the belief that his passage to Rio would have been less by a week or ten days than the usual average.

That this long passage may not serve to prejudice navigators against the new route on the charts, I have deemed it proper to make the following statement, based on the abstract of the voyage which Captain Sullivan has been so kind as to send me.

With admirable judgment he followed the chart as far as it went, crossing the Equator on April 13th in about 31° 45′ W., on the 31st day out, which gave him a passage, so far, of 10 days less than the average by the same route. His guide went no further; and after crossing the Line, he was left to his own judgment. I quote from the abstract which he has sent me :

Currents.

Winds and remarks.

East, moderate.
East, strong tide up.

1° 0′ W. 10° N. N. N. E., light wind.

1° 5' W.

2° 5' W. by N.

Latitude. Longitude.
31° 38′ W.

0° 5' W.

14...

1° 39' S. 2° 10′ S.

31° 50' W.
30° 59′ W.
32° 50′ W.
35° 10′ W.

1° 0' W.

34° 12′ W.

2° 5' W. by N.

18.

19. 20.

2° 00' S.
1° 56' S.
1° 20' S.

2° 5' W. by N.
1° 7' W. by N.
1° 5' W. by N.
1° 9' W. N. W.
1° 9′ W. N. W.
1° 2′ W. N. W.
2° 0' W. N. W.
1° 5' W. N. W.

E. S. E.,

66

66

66

21..

22.

23..

37° 15′ W. 39° 40′ W. 39° 12′ W. 0° 44' S. 40° 20′ W. 0° 10' S. 41° 01' W. 0° 15' S. 40° 59′ W. 24...... 0° 20' S. 41° 20′ W. 25...... 0° 15' N. 42° 00′ W. And so on, getting as far to leeward as 11° 30' N. in 52° W. Now it will be observed that the winds on the 18th and 19th were as fair as winds could blow for going to the southward, and that, instead of standing in that direction, the brig was running off to northward and westward at the rate of 210 miles one day and 140 the next.

Calm.

Light airs from east.

If she chose not to take advantage of a fair wind, it certainly can be no fault of the chart. June 21st, or 69 days after crossing the Line the first time, he crossed it again in very nearly the same place; where I again extract from his log:

And so on, weathering St. Roque without difficulty, and arriving at Rio July 8th.

Now, I submit it to any navigator to say whether the winds, notwithstanding the westwardly current, were not more favorable for clearing Cape St. Roque after crossing the Line the first time than they were the second; and I leave it to them, further, to say whether this journal is not calculated to inspire confidence as to my route.

I have the tracks of eight vessels that have sailed the new route to the Line, and the mean passage of the eight is short of 31 days, which is 25 per cent less than the average passage by the usual route.

More ample materials, collected since the chart was first published, have enabled me to give more specific sailing directions for this route. They will be ready for publication in a few days. But as vessels are daily departing in that direction, I will here remark that, at this season of the year, I would recommend them to cross the parallel of 30° N. in about 50° W.; to make the best of their way thence to 50 or 6° N. in about 30° W.; near which they may expect to meet the S. E. trades. After getting there, vessels are recommended to make the best of their way to southward, and, in case of their being not likely to clear St. Roque, they are advised not to tack, unless with a favorable slant of wind, but to stand boldly on until they get as near the land as it is prudent to go, recollecting that, by so doing, all the chances of a change of wind are in their favor, and bearing in mind that the currents are generally not so strong close into the shore as they are some 50 or 100 miles from it, as the chart shows. When, however, they are compelled to tack, with the wind obstinately in their teeth, they are recommended to make short stretches of not more than twelve hours each. In proof of the advantages of so doing, I refer to the tracks of the "Osceola" and "Plymouth," last April, which are laid down in a broken green line. Those who will take the trouble to examine these two tracks will perceive that each of these vessels, had they have had the benefit of this suggestion, (which they had not,) would have saved several days between the Line and St. Roque. M. F. MAURY.

JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COTTON MILL IN INDIANA.

THE FIRST CO-PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE FOOD AND COTTON PRODUCING DISTRICTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Freeman Hunt, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, &c.

DEAR SIR-The low prices of cotton and food in the Mississippi valley, has at length resulted in the commencement, on a large scale, of a third interest and employment in aid of the two first. The West and South have determined, by a fair experiment, to see if it is not more economical to manufacture their cotton and eat their corn at home.

The first movement is seen in the recent organization of the Cannelton Cotton Mill, chartered by the last legislature of Indiana, with a capital of $500,000, and to be operated at the Cannelton Coal Banks, in Perry county, Indiana, and on the bank of the Ohio River. This site affords superior coal at four cents per bushel; it is peculiarly healthy, is below all the important obstructions in the river, and is the centre of a rich food-producing district. The financial arrangements and sales will be made in this city, where there is a large banking capital.

The stockholders in the company are substantial inen, who have taken hold of the thing to make money. They number thirty-six; twenty-one are residents of Kentucky, five of Indiana, two of Louisiana, six of Mississippi, and one of Arkansas. Together, they are able to put up a cotton factory of 10,000 spindles every year, and they doubtless will do this, if they realize, on the first, even the minimum of estimated profits, or 15 per cent. They are well known throughout the country, and the result of their operations will be looked for with great interest. If this is favorable, but a few years will elapse before we shall manufacture all the coarse cotton goods (say No. 14 and under) required here or elsewhere, and which are to be made from our cotton. The effect which this change will have here and abroad, is a problem I shall not attempt to solve. That it will be seen, is as sure as that the cheapest material, the cheapest food, and the cheapest power is likely to attract the cheapest labor, and must make the cheapest goods.

This Cannelton Cotton Mill will adopt the general principles and most of the details of the "Lowell system." Ten thousand spindles will be put in operation early next fall;

and if the first work to the satisfaction of the stockholders, the number will be duplicated in the year following.

The officers of the company are William Richardson, president, and Alfred Thruston, treasurer. The machinery will be built in New England, Pittsburgh, and Louisville; the overseers, machinists, &c., and teachers of the female operatives, will be obtained from New England. Female labor can be had in the greatest abundance at an average price of $150 per week, exclusive of board, and board can be had at $1 per week. These rates are about 25 per cent lower than in New England.

I regard this movement of as much importance to the East as to the West and Southwest; for this is a clear proposition, that a country, out of its infancy, which does not work up its peculiar staples, and make its coarse fabrics, must become a very unsafe customer to the foreign manufacturer and factor. Yours respectfully,

H. S,

PROCESS OF WORKING A LAKE SUPERIOR COPPER MINE. HORACE GREELY, Esq., the editor of the Tribune, who recently visited the Lake Superior copper mines, thus describes the process of opening and working a copper mine in that region:

We will suppose that the district of country has been hurriedly examined by the pioneer adventurers, or prospecters, who, coasting along the lake, have landed at some petty bay or inlet, followed a stream back into the wilderness, watching the rocks it exposes, and then the faces of the cliffs, or steep, rocky eminences, around and among which it meanders, in search of mineral outcrops or indications. These discovered, of a satisfactory character, a location is made, and a lease of it (hitherto) taken. Next, (probably next season,) workmen, a team, provisions, powder, mining tools, &c., &c., are landed at the most convenient point on the lake, a trail cut back to the vicinity of the discovered vein or veins, and a part of the force build some sort of dwellings, while others are setting up the indispensable blacksmith's forge, hauling up the stores, (the most necessary first,) &c. As soon as possible, the vein is probed further, by pickaxe, drilling, and blasting; but, if the force consists of only three or four men, they are not likely to penetrate the earth beyond twenty feet the first season. Soon water begins to pour in, especially after storms, and still more abundantly in the thawing season, and arrangements must be made for its removal at first by bailing, and, as the hole gradually becomes a shaft, by raising with rope and bucket, until a wim can be constructed, or an adit run up-the latter is preferable, if the ground descends rapidly from the mine in any direction. But the adit can be relied on for surface water only; your shaft will in time be below it, and then you must raise water by hand or machinery, (a wim.)

What with making road, building, getting up provisions, iron, tools, &c., cutting wood, timber, and the like, of the first five thousand days' work done on a location, only from one to two thousand, except under peculiar circumstances, can be devoted to mining; but at length, if the work is prosecuted, the shaft has obtained a depth of forty to sixty feet, at which is commenced a drift-a horizontal gallery or excavation in the rock following the course of the vein, (usually both ways from the shaft,) and from six to seven feet high, and four to six feet wide. The rock is not merely to be blasted out, but raised to the surface by such rude machinery as may be at command, with probably a hundred lifts of water to one of rock. The rare exceptions are the cases (like that of the Cliff") in which the vein is discovered at the base or in the side of a steep acclivity, into which may be run upon it without sinking a drift, which shall also be an adit, dispensing from the first with all necessity for raising either minerals, rock, or water. In ninety-nine of every hundred cases the process is very different from this.

But the shaft being sunk and a drift or adit run for fifty to two hundred feet, and if the product answer or exceed expectation, your vein is tolerably proved; but you have as yet obtained very little mineral. All you will obtain in sinking, even on the richest vein, will pay but a small share of the cost; in drifting you do a little better, and but a little. You want two shafts sunk, and one of them down a hundred feet so, with your second drift opened for some distance at the bottom, and now (if the vein be a good one and you have a practicable road and other fixings) you may begin to stope or blast down the forty or fifty feet of vein over head of each drift, in which only you can hope for profit. Six miners will take out more mineral in this manner than sixty in sinking and drifting. Very few companies have reached this point. I consider $50,000 a moderate estimate for the cost of opening a mine in this region, counting from the location to the moment at which the mine will pay its way, and including the cost of land. The Cliff expended over $100,000, but its managers inevitably bought some experience which others may now borrow.