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MARINE REVIEW. | 5 lron Mining. VALUE OF LEADING STOCKS. Quoted by Chas. H. Potter & Co., No. 10g Superior St. Cleneland, 0. Stocks. 5 Cleveland---Cliffs Iron Compan ee ' Bid. steed: Champion Iron. Com patty oer sc0csseccsveaccas DeEGar Set et ae Br 8000 Chandler Iron Company............. Wr astars We be Got 20 Meee (oe PxeksouAarone COMPANY 5.02... casveivecesesecc 25 00 nie 49299 Lake Superior Iron Company...............4 Sonia 105, 00 Minnesota Iron Company...............seceeee 100 00 Bis ee e Be Pittsburg Lake Angeline Iron Co.......... 25 00 ecieees 00 Skepuplic Iron Comipany......i..6..scesecci: 25 00 22 00 "23 50 Ashland ....sceeceseeeeeecsseeees oe ceeeeessseeeneass B5POO M$: Ss Sales ween 52 50 Secronmm hint y sth reescc...)..cctevcsclisesssweasas 25 00 aan Ie oie eC eeeetercae tore 8es eG teak aca 25 00 ae Dos Iron Belt.... Beate ieee oan een enc Meaack ean 25 00 2 40 2 75 * Ex. rights. Iron stocks are dull and ina tew cases prices are somewhat lower. The failure of the pig iron market to respond to improve- mentin nearly all other branches of the trade is still a main cause of inactivity in stocks. 'The Chandler company paid on the rst inst. the second installment of $1 a share on the dividend of $6 a share promised for the present year but outside of this there is nothing new in the dividend line.. Some of the Gogebic stocks, Aurora, Ashland and Iron Belt, have sold at reduced prices during the past few days, probably due to the fear of large supplies of ore from the new Mesaba range. Notwithstanding the delay in sales all of the producing mines are apparantly being worked to 'full capacity. » Although value of stocks in the large number of companies 'that have taken up mineral lands on the new Mesaba range of: - Minnesota where test pits are being sunk fluctuate almost hourly -in Duluth, the headquarters of the boom, it is remarkable that outside of some investigations made by the Minnesota Iron > Company the managers and leading operators in the old Lake Superior districts have shown very little interest in the new "range, and of the hundreds of names connected with new com- panies that are being organized daily none of the owners of "Marquette, Menominee and Gogebic range mines are to be 'found. Outside of Duluth parties who are known to be leading promoters of the range, the names of investors come mainly from the south and from Minneapolis and St. Paul. The methods of the boomers are fully equal to those practiced on the opening of the Gogebic range a few years ago, and that the craze has - now taken on a full head of steam there is little doubt. A large portion of the newspaper articles are of the paid advertising kind and the services of correspondents are eagerly sought in this di- rection. The range may have good ore in paying deposits but the the present boom will certainly delay its development. Ex-Gover- 'nor Campbell of Ohio, visited the range a few days ago and is 'prominently mentioned in connection with a corporation called the Ohio company, which has all the elements of a stock floating concern. 'The current issue of Iron Ore of Ishpeming contains a number of assays from the ore of several companies that have sunk pits and are now selling. The ore is below the Bessemer 'limit in most cases and the claim that it is of an unclean kind with a flat formation is repeated. The charge may be made that the owners of mines on the older ranges fear the development of the 'Mesaba, but it goes without saying that a claim of millions of tons of ore for any mine or large tract of land based on the sink- ing of test pits is of little account. Ferdinand Schlesinger, whose management of the group of mines originally controlled by what is known as the Schlesinger syndicate has been quite successful since the settlement of the Chapin difficulties, proposes to add to the present heavy pro- duction of these mines by reopening another property, the Claire. A report from Crystal Falls says that a mining force will be put to work immediately, and, although no ore was shipped last season, the mine has two shafts and can make a very large output. The January number of the regular monthly pamphlet from the treasury department contains a copy of a circular which local inspectors have been giving out to all applicants for licenses as masters, mates, pilots or engineers. The circular calls special attention to leading features of the steamboat laws. Send 20 cents in stamps for Tabulated State- ment showing Lake Superior ore production for 1891, and the past 36 years. Proposed Changes in the Business of Lake Insurance. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. MILWAUKEE, Wis., March ro--local insurance men have received no- tice that an informal meeting of the underwriters insuring lake risks was held in New York on the Ist inst., for an exchange of views concern- ing the methods that have heretofore prevailed on the lakes in the adjust- ment and settlement of general and particular average losses. It was the unanimous opinion that the existing system is not calculated to afford the interests of underwriters a proper and sufficient protection, and that the customs that have prevailed and new principles sought to be introduced into general average adjustments are not consistent with the laws of gen- eral average as settled by the courts, nor with the rules and customs pre- vailing in the seaports of the United States; and that the growth and and development of the carrying trade on the lakes, the large values rep- resented, the increased size of vessels now employed, render it impera- tively necessary that an effort should be made to bring the settlement of losses within the lines of the law and the rules of maritine commerce, but with a due regard to the conditions under which lake transportation is conducted, and equitable consideration for the shipowners' interest as well. It was thought that several minor changes in the form of hull policy would conduce to the desired reform, and that a plan for the gen- eral supervision of all claims by a competent bureau representing jointly all underwiting interests could be arranged that would 'tend to remove some features now open to serious objection. It was considered that to render the movement objective the co-operation of the lake underwriters would be necessary, and the latter are therefore invited to attend a meet- ing for this purpose to be held in New York city on March 16. The com- panies represented at the informal meeting were the Atlantic Mutual In- surance Company of North America, Greenwich, A/tna,British & Foreign, Union Marine, New York Marine Underwriters, Standard of Liverpool, Mannheim, Reliance Marine and the Sea.. Most of these companies have general agencies at lake points, and the invitation is more particularly extended to such companies doing business on the lakes as are not repre- sented in New York. Statistics gathered from the books in the office of the collector of customs show such a volume of east-bound winter business for the east shore transit steamers that it need not be wondered at if, as reported, the Canadian Pacific, Pennsylvania and other trunk lines are quietly prepar- ing to enter the field in the near future by introducing steamers of their own and establishing independent terminals at east shore points. Ac- cording to figures secured from the source indicated, there were carried out of Milwaukee by the steamers of the Flint & Pere Marquette, Grand Trunk and St. Joseph lines during the months of December, January and February 838,582 barrels of flour and 954,384 bushels of grain, besides mill feed and miscellaneous freight, the grain being divided as follows in bushels: Wheat 114,000, corn 40,000, barley, 527,384, rye 160,000, oats 113, ovo. But for ascarcity of cars experienced on at least two occasions, the figures, surprising as they are in their present shape, would have been at least 20 per cent. greater. The introduction of additional steamer lines by new routes, as competitors for this winter business, does not threaten the least harm to the routes now operated; it means only an increase in volume to the extent of added facilties for handling freight destined for seaboard points. Masters and engineers of a number of small coarse freighters winter- ing here are already engaged in fitting them out for the season, with the expectation of making a start not later than the rst. of April. About all of these steamers have season engagements, and the only thing that -stands in the way of a start as early as the middle of the present month is the presence of ice in the little lakes at east shore points. Large fields of ice that were dislodged by warm weather at the lower end of the lake during the early part of February have been driven to the west shore by continued northerly and easterly winds, and now so effect- ually blockade the harbor at Kewaunee that the steamer Osceola and the boats of the Goodrich line have not been able to effect an entrance for two' weeks. The blockade constitutes a serious detriment to the move- ment of flour eastward by the Lackawanna's Frankfort route. People who have wondered why the American Steel Barge Company quit building whaleback barges at Brooklyn for the Atlantic coast trade will wonder no longer when they learn, from such excellent authority as Capt. Alex. McDougall himself, that the two original barges, 201 and 202, are to be transferred to the lakes soon after the opening of navigation. Capt. McDougall assigns "big freight" on the lakes as the main reason for making the transfer. This is an easy way of admitting that the bar- ges have proved unprofitable in the trade for which they were built. Capt. Hugh W. Jones died at Racine on Saturday aged 67 years. His first command on Lake Michigan was the schooner Ethan Allen, and later he owned an interest in and commanded the schooner Onward. The editor of the MARINE REVIEW has examined Patter- son's Nautical Dictionary thoroughly, and with pleasure recom- mends it to any one having any connection with marine affairs,