The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. OL Iron Mining. VALUE OF LEADING STOCKS. Quoted by Chas. H. Potter & Co., No. rog Superior St. Cleveland, O. Stocks. : Cleveland---Cliffs Iron Coiigathwle cowapecen: Bid. Asked. Champion Iron' Company......:.....ccdcseee 25 00 pte pe oe Chandler tron Company...sics.-i.eccs.., - Ae tides ee Nackson Mow Company....c.c.cscccdeele.sc., Be oo ae He es Lake Superior Iron Goma eee a ace sree 100 00 Minnesota Iron Company...................000 100 0O lhe vee ue ee Pittsburg Lake Angeline Iron Co.......... 25 00 ate 50 0 00 Ive pile Tron Com Paty. .<.ic...sceensces ness 25 00 ee: PEOEeS NGM AVG) odealsctse costed coteectce ce Sena ee ites ett rc ogee Semone Whitby threes co. G5 h isso. cis a Baie got seen Bee Pmebenroue et eee ey ee Boa i ee MRO TME Belt arses ese sins Ratevaccccrmeets orc t eee 25 00 2 25 2 50 It would be difficult to imagine a more uninteresting market than that for iron mining stocks at the present time. Even the Mesaba excitement has failed to arouse a selling movement, and there is nothing interesting in the way of dividends. The Iron- Cliffs company is expected to pay its first installment of a regular 6 per cent. annual dividend this month but there has been no official announcement on the subject. The Republic company has sold two of its wooden steamboats at a price a little above ¢100,000 but the payments are only partially cash and no shar- ing of this money may be expected as yet. We have received from W.C. Brown & Co. of Marquette, Mich., a very good map of the Mesaba range. It was prepared by one of the best known explorers and mineral experts in the Lake Superior country and is well worth ¢2.50, the price at which it sells. Cuban Iron Ores. Lake vessel owners and iron ore producers in the Lake Su- perior region who have given some attention to the development of mineral lands in Cuba will be interested in reports of a recent visit of Philadelphia capitalists to the mines. The party was made up mainly of stockholders in the Sigua Iron Company and was accompanied by George W. Goetz, mining expert of Mil- watkee, who is well known to Lake Superior producers and shippers. The operations of the Sigua company, which is dis- tinctively a Philadelphia concern, are about as far advanced as that of the Spanish-American company, in which the American Steel Barge Company and some Cleveland capitalists are inter- ested, neither corporation having shipped any ore as yet,although ~ a very large amount of money has been put into railways and docks, which are constructed after the system in use at Kscana- ba, Marquette and other lake shipping ports. The Juragua company, which is controlled by the Bethlehem Iron Company and the Pennsylvania Steel Company, and which was the first to enter the Cuban field about eight years ago, has expended $2,- 500,000 in plant and expenses, and has shipped to Pennsylvania nearly 1,500,000 tons of Bessemer ore. The mines of this com- pany as well as those of the concerns which have notas yet shipped any ore were visited, and most flattering reports are made of immense quantities of mineral of the finest Bessemer quality. Mr. Goetz says that the hills are strewn with ore aver- aging over 60 per cent. in iron and being very low in phosphor- us, but he advances the opinion that the ore can not be brought west of the Alleghanies to compete with the Lake Superior pro- duct, although it will find a market along the Atlantic coast. A freight rate of not less than $1.75 a ton has been made, he says, and the duty is 75 cents a ton. The wages are only $1 a day, but it is very poor labor. The laborers are a promiscuous lot of Spaniards, Cubans and negroes. 'They are naturally ! lazy, and then the climate will not permit of such hard work as is expected of a laborer in the north. Notwithstanding the low wages, the cost of labor is about the same as here, when it is taken into consideration that a man there can not do nearly so much asa laborer would perform here. Steamers--William Edwards, Capt. Schooners--Charles Atmos- FRIES, VALENTINE, MILAN, O.: W. W. Collins; Golden Age, Capt. John C. Floor. Foster, Capt. Dan Stalker; Marion W. Paige, Capt. J. W. Wilson; phere, Capt. Angus McGougan. - Congressional Measures. A report from the House committee on interstate and for- eign commerce recommends the repeal of a resolution passed by the last Congress to permit the secretary of war to grant a re- vocable license to use a pier at the mouth of the Chicago river. The railway company seeking the use of this pier sought to pre- vent tows being made up in that part of the river. Mr. O'Neil of Pennsylvania has introduced a bill in the House providing that "the lights of ferry boats and barges and canal boats when in tow of steam vessels shall be regulated by the board of supervising inspectors of steam vessels."' As anticipated in recent issues of the REviEw, the first of the "free ships" bills has been reported favorably to the House by the committee on merchant marine and fisheries. It is the measure proposing American registry for certain high class ocean-going steamers, bill No. 7,023, and is intended for bait to the honest supporters of American shipping, although its aim is clearly in the direction of breaking down opposition to "free ships." The shipbuilders of the lakes should join in opposition to such measures or they will soon find themselves confronted with similar legislation. Canada's Cruisers--Model of the Santa Maria. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. WASHINGTON, D.C. April 8--The United States commercial agent at Collingwood, has forwarded to the state department here, some statistics concerning the new Canadian cruiser Constance, recently launched at Owen Sound. The length on the water line is 118 feet; over all 125.1 feet; draft of water, to feet aft and 86 feet forward; depth of hold, 11.3 feet. She is constructed with what is known as the "ram'stern." She is to be propelled by steam, with the addition of two leg-of-mutton sails of 40 feet hoist and 30 feet on foot. Her engines are compound, with a capacity of I15 to 120 revolutions. Her expected speed is 13 to 14 knots an hour. She is of the composite construction, all steel with the exception of the keel and the bottom, which is planked to about the light-water mark. The Constance is constructed to carry three guns on each quarter and one on the forward deck, but the size is not specified in the plan examined. Her engines and boilers are protected by a quarter-inch sheet of steel, leaving a space between it and the side of the ship to be used as coal bunkers. The thickness of the plates of the Constance is three-fourths of an inch. The agent reports that as far as he is able to learn this boat was built for the marine and fishery department of the Canadian Government, but has been transferred to the custom department to be used on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 'This information is verified by recent statements made to the official organ ofthe Government which goes to show that the neces- sity for a better boat for preventing smuggling operations in the lower St, Lawrence led to the selection of the Constance. The organ states that she was built for the fishery protection service on the great lakes, and to supply her place the minister of marine has decided to have another swift vessel built this winter. TShe new one will be of steel thoughout, rather than a composite ship, as is the Constance, and will also havea lighter draft, and of necessity a greater beam, which will enable her to navigate with safety the shallow waters in which the fishermen of the lakes ply their calling. The treasury department is informed by Mr. William E. Curtis that there will be built for exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition a model of the Santa Maria, the flagship of Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic, and perhaps models of two vessels that accompanied him; that these boats will be built in Spain and brought to the United States to take part in the naval parade next year; that they will then be taken through the canals and the lakes to Chicago, and at the close of the exposition will be brought to Washington and moored in the lake in the White Lot. Mr. Curtis says that the vessels are to be brought in simply as curiosities, and not for trade,and he inquires as to the free entry of the same in case they are built by private capital, etc. Assistant Secretary Spaulding has informed him in reply that if the vessels are brought in solely for exhibition at the exposition they will be entitled to free entry, but the department cannot now advise him as to their liability to duty at the close of the exposition in case they are not exported, further than to say that the question of their presentation to the government and of their acceptance will be duly treated when the occasion occurs for its con- sideration. Official Numbers and Tonnage. The bureau of navigation assigned official numbers to the following lake vessels during the week ending April 2: Steam--Susie B., Cleve- land, 19.54 tons gross, 9.77 net, No. 116,482. Sail--J. L. Hudson, Sandus- ky, 18.43 tons gross, 11.06 net, No. 77,017; Jay Ochs, Sandusky, 18.43 tons gross, 11.06 net, No. 77,018.