Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

“ A man's first night in the wilderness is impressive. Our friends had left us, and returned to Potosi. Gradually all sounds of animated nature ceased. When darkness closed around us, the civilized world seemed to have drawn its curtains, and excluded us. We put fresh sticks on the fire, which threw a rich flash of light on our camp, and finally wrapped ourselves in our blankets, and, amidst ruminations on the peculiarities of our position, our hopes, and our dangers, we sank to sleep. ”

“ It is already west of the Mississippi river, that mighty geographical highway, which, like a longitudinal line, stretches across seventeen degrees of latitude, every mile of which will, ere long, be settled and cultivated by the Anglo-American race. As the population presses first on the Indian's hunting-grounds, and next on his cornfields, he flies before the irresistible tide, and takes shelter at some more remote western point. ”

“ This leisurely tracing of the coast revealed to me some of the minutest features of its geological structure. The cliffs consist of horizontal strata of limestone, resting on granular crystalline sandstone. Nothing can equal the beauty of the varying landscape presented for the last two days. There has appeared a succession of the most novel and interesting objects. Whatever pleasure can be derived from the contemplation of natural objects, presented in surprising and picturesque groups, can here be enjoyed in the highest degree. ”

“ We ascended through the heavily-timbered bottom-lands of the valley for a mile or two, and then passed by an easy route through the valley cliffs, to the prairie uplands north of them. After getting fairly out of the gorge we had followed, we entered on a rolling highland prairie, with some clumps of small forest trees, and covered, as far as the eye could reach, with coarse wild grass, and the seed-pods of autumnal flowers, nodding in the breeze. It was a waving surface. Sometimes the elevations assumed a conical shape. Sometimes we crossed a depression with trees. ”

“ There was now every appearance of a change of weather. It was cold, and a wintry breeze chilled our limbs. I thought my blood was as warm as that of my guides, however, and rode on cheerfully. At length, Holt and Fisher, of their own motion, stopped to kindle a fire, and take breakfast. We had still plenty of fresh venison, which we roasted, as each liked, on spits. Thus warmed and refreshed, we continued down the valley, evidently in a better philosophical mood; for a man always reasons better, and looks more beneficently about him, this side of starvation. ”

“ Even art may be challenged to contrast, with more effect, the bleak and rugged cliff with the verdant forest, the cultivated field, or the wide-extended surface of the Mississippi, interspersed with its beautiful islands, and winding majestically through a country, which only requires the improvements of civilized and refined society, to render it one of the most delightful residences of man. ”

“ Every day is developing to us the resources of this country in minerals, and particularly in lead; and we cannot resist the belief that, in riches and extent, the mines of Missouri are paralleled by no other mineral district. In working the mines, in raising and smelting the ore, and in the establishment of the different manufactures dependent upon it, there is much to be done. Though the processes now pursued are greatly superior to those in use under the French and Spanish governments, there is still ample room for improvement. The earth has not yet been penetrated over eighty feet! ”

“ I found the town of Cape Girardeau situated on an elevation of rich, red, marly soil, highly charged with oxide of iron, which is characteristic of the best arable soils of the mine country. This soil appears to be very readily dissolved in water, and carried off rapidly by rains, which furnishes a solution to the deep gulfs and gorges that disfigure many parts of the cultivated high grounds. If such places were sown with the seeds of grass, it would give fixity to the soil, and add much to the beauty of the landscape. ”

“ James river originates in the Ozarks, a few miles south of the Gasconade, in Missouri Territory, and, after running in a south-west direction for two hundred miles, in the course of which it is swelled by Findley's river, and by other streams, forms a junction with White river a thousand miles above the mouth of the latter. Its waters are as pure as crystal; it lies under a climate the most mild, salubrious, and delightful; and on its banks are situated a body of the most fertile and beautiful lands which the whole valley of the Mississippi affords. The timber on its banks is abundant ”

“ There is a great waste created by smelting ore in the common log furnace, in which a considerable part of the lead is volatilized, forming the sublimated matter which adheres in such bodies to the sides of the log furnaces, and is thrown by as useless. This can be prevented by an improvement in its construction. To pursue mining with profit, it is necessary to pursue it with economy; and true economy is, to build the best of furnaces, with the best of materials. ”

“ We are, at all events, clearly out of the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace. And the maxim that we have carefully conned over in childhood, "No man may put off the law of God," is but a feeble reliance when urged against the Osages or Pawnees.
Deeming themselves now high enough up the Swan creek valley, my guides determined to leave it, and turned their horses' heads up a gorge that led to the open plains. We now steered our course north-west, over an elevated plain, or prairie, covered, as usual, with ripe grass. ”

“ But he is hardly well seated on his new hunting-grounds—he has hardly begun to reap his new cornfields—when the pioneers of the same race that disturbed him before, are upon him; and again, and again he must fly before the resistless—the uncontrollable tide of migration. It is a providential reflux in the wave of races. ”

“ Masses of limestone rock stand up in the bed of the river, and create several channels. Between these the river foams and roars. When I arose in the canoe to take a view of the rapid into which we were about to plunge, the bed of the stream appeared to be a perfect sheet of foam, whirling and rushing with great force and tumult. As I knew not the proper channel, and it was too late to withdraw, the only step left was to keep the canoe headed, and down we went most rapidly. Very soon the canoe leaped on a round rock, driving on it with great force, and veered about crosswise. ”

“ Floating, in a light pine skiff, in the centre of such a stream, on a very dark night, our fate seemed suspended by a thread. The downward pressure of the current was such, that we needed not to move an oar; and every eye was strained, by holding it down parallel to the water, to discover contiguous snags, or floating bodies. It became, at the same time, quite cold. We at length made a shoal covered with willows, or a low sandy islet, on the left, or Illinois shore. ”

“ If, however, as there can be little doubt, the limestone is the real matrix of the lead ore, the time will come when the present diggings will be considered as merely superficial beginnings, and the work will be resumed where hitherto it has been abandoned. It seems that the almost invariable practice of the miners is, to persevere till they strike the rock, and then to go and dig elsewhere ”

“ At present, the most flagrant violations of the laws are practised—mines are worked without leases—wood is destroyed on lands which are only valuable for the wood and the lead-ore they contain; and the government derives but a small revenue from those celebrated mines, which, whether we consider their vast extent, the richness of the ore, or the quantity of metal they are capable of annually producing, are unparalleled by any other mineral district in the world. ”

“ About two miles above this locality, we came to one of the geological wonders of the Mississippi, called the Grand Tower. It is a pile of limestone rocks, rising precipitously from the bed of the river in a circular form, resembling a massive castle. The height of this geological monument may be about one hundred feet. It is capped by some straggling cedars, which have caught a footing in the crevices. It might, with as much propriety as one of the Alps, be called the Jungfrau (Virgin) ; for it seems impossible that any human being should ever have ascended it. ”

“ They will bound twenty feet at a leap, as measured, on a gentle declivity. This animal is impelled by a fatal curiosity to stop and turn round to look at the cause of its disturbance, after running a distance. It is at this moment that the hunter generally fires.
About noon, we reached and crossed Findley's Fork, or the Winoca valley—the locality of the cave. Two miles south of it, in ascending an elevation, our ears were saluted by a murmuring sound in the air, which the hunters declared to be single bees, flying in a line. ”

“ Schoolcraft informs us that although the mining business is much improved, there is still a great deficiency both of capital and of skill—there is in the whole district but one regular hearth furnace for smelting, and that not the best;—among forty mines, there are only four or five regular shafts—there is among all the mines, no engine of any description for raising water, and some of the richest mines with the best prospects in view, have been in consequence abandoned. Yet, under all these disadvantages, the annual produce of the mines is estimated at three millions of pounds of lead. ”

“ About ten o'clock he was ready, and, leading a stout little compact horse from a pen, he clapped a saddle on, seized his rifle, announced himself as ready, and led off. The trail led up a long ridge, which appeared to be the dividing ground between the two principal forks of the Maramec. It consisted of a stiff loam, filled with geological drift, which, having been burned over for ages by the Indians, to fit it for hunting in the fall of the year, had little carbonaceous soil left, and exhibited a hard and arid surface. ”

“ The downward movement of the water, and its gurgling and rush as it meets with obstacles, is very audible after the barge has been fastened to the shore for the night, when its fearful impetuosity, surcharged as it is with floating wrecks of forest life, is impressive to the listener, while night has thrown her dark pall over the scene. ”

“ Unwilling to adopt a belief so contrary to the general order of nature, and to the history of the human species, so far as it has been transmitted to us, I shall hazard some conjectures upon the subject, which I think will, in some measure, tend to dissolve the mystery that hovers over these bones, and to reconcile their appearance with the general history of our race. To be sure, Nature, in her sport, has now and then produced monsters. ”

“ Since the first discovery of lead in this Territory, the number of mines has been much increased, and hardly a season passes without some new discovery. Every discovery of importance soon becomes the centre of mining attraction. As the ore is found in the diluvial soil, it is generally exhausted on reaching the solid rock; and after penetrating a considerable area of the surface with any, or but partial success, the locality is abandoned, and a new one sought. As the mines are worked without capital, and the ore is dispersed over a wide area, the number of localities is almost indefinite. ”

“ The most prominent incidents of this day were the passing, on the Illinois shore, of the celebrated site of fort Chartres, and the influx of the Kaskaskia (or, as it is abbreviated by the men, Ocaw or Caw) river—a large stream on the eastern shore. These names will recall some of the earliest and most stirring scenes of Illinois history. The town of Kaskaskia, which is the present seat of the territorial government, is seated seven miles above its mouth.
Fort Chartres is now a ruin, and, owing to the capricious channel of the Mississippi, is rapidly tumbling into it. ”

“ The effects of the late copious rains were still an impediment to travelling; but I experienced no further symptoms of lameness, and felt the desire to press on, increasing in proportion as I drew near my starting-point in the prior autumn. I felt that I had succeeded in the accomplishment of a trip of some peril, through a noted mountainous range, into which all but one of my original party had failed to accompany me, and my guides had deserted me at a moment of peculiar peril. It was also true that my only companion had rather abruptly left me, when taken lame on the road. ”

“ In searching for ore, the soil, the slope of the hills, spar, blossom, trees, &c., are taken as guides, and some are obstinately attached to these signs. Others, who have been fortunate in finding ore where these appearances were least promising, wholly disregard them, and pay no attention to rules. In general, there is a greater disposition to trust to luck and chance, and stumble upon ore, than by attending to mineral character, to be sure of success. ”

“ A wilderness lay before us, behind us, and around us. We had "taken our lives in our hands," and we were well satisfied that our success must depend on our vigilance, energy, and determination. In addition to the exertion of providing food, and repairing our clothing, which, as we urged our way, was paying tribute to every sharp bush we pressed through, we had to exercise a constant vigilance to prevent Indian surprises; for experience had already taught us that, in the wilderness, where there is no law to impose restraint but the moral law of the heart, man is the greatest enemy of man. ”

“ I found the geological structure of the country, embracing the mines, to be very uniform. It consists of a metalliferous limestone, in horizontal strata, which have not been lifted up or disturbed from their horizontality by volcanic forces; but they have been exposed to the laws of disintegration and elemental action in a very singular manner. By this action, the surface of the formation has been divided into ridges, valleys, and hills, producing inequalities of the most striking and picturesque character. ”

“ Such a man will not stop to compare and reconcile facts, which are seemingly opposite, or to investigate the nature of general principles.
[Pg 177] Hence miners exclaim on the uncertainty of finding ores by rules drawn from the observations of science; that the strata of the earth are irregular, and not to be depended upon like the rock formations in Europe; and that, in fine, we have no guides by which its mineral treasures are to be sought, and that, in so confused a soil, chance is the best guide. ”

“ The desultory manner in which the mines have been wrought, and the imperfect method in which accounts have been kept, when kept at all, with other circumstances, which are in some measure incidental to the operations of mining in a new country, oppose so many obstacles in the way of obtaining the desired information, that I find it impossible to present a correct statement, from authentic sources, of the annual product of the mines for any series of years. ”

“ Holt and Fisher were the highest occupants of the White river valley. They had reached this spot about four months before, and had brought their effects partly on pack-horses, and partly in canoes. The site was judiciously chosen. A finer tract of rich river bottom could not have been found, while the site commanded an illimitable region, above and around it, for hunting the deer, buffalo, elk, and other species, besides the beaver, otter, and small furred animals, which are taken in traps. We tried, at first vainly, to persuade them to accompany us in our further explorations. ”

“ And shall man here grow a pigmy? Unless we are ready to adopt the opinion of certain naturalists, that the human species are the legitimate descendants of the apes, and that they once wore tails, and were of their diminutive size—unless we are ready to believe the history of the Lilliputians, and of Tom Thumb—I think we shall discard the idea of a nation of dwarfs, as wholly preposterous. ”

“ We know not what may be found in the lower strata of the soil. There is reason to believe that the main bodies of ore have not yet been hit upon; that they lie deeper, and that we have thus far only been engaged upon the spurs and detached masses. There is also reason to believe that bodies of the ores of zinc exist in the district of the mines, and that copper will be afforded by the lower strata of earth. It is found overlaid by lead-ores in many of the European mines ”