test their industry and perseverance. Those who succeeded them, not being impelled by such sanguine hopes of finding the precious metals, and not having capital to employ in extensive undertakings, were content to mine in the alluvial soil, and red marl, which has continued to afford the ore, in undiminished abundance, to the present period.

The course of emigration, since the period of our former visit, has contributed in a sensible degree to augment the population of the mining district, and to give increased activity to the business of mining. A considera. ble proportion of these emigrants are indigent Europeans, who, having no capital to set up their trades in the Atlantic cities, have migrated westward. To this class of people, who soon take up the notion, that the farther you go west, the better the lands, and the easier is a living obtained, St. Louis has generally served as the Ultima Thule; and being disappointed in their expectations on arriving here, they have been directed to the mines. Bringing with them nothing but their hands, they have been precisely the kind of population here wanted, and the consequences are, a revival of mining in several circles of country formerly abandoned. We have been credibly informed that no less than five hundred of these persons have entered the mining district within the last two years.

These persons have pursued the same methods in raising the ore that have been so long practised, and readily acquiesce in the traditionary laws, which have so many years governed the community of miners, that like the Stannary laws of Cornwall, they are become prescriptive rights. So long as the mines continue to be chiefly explored in the marl formation, the principles of European mining do not appear capable of being applied here to much advantage. When they

come to be extensively worked in the rock, the efforts which are now scattered over an immense surface will be concentrated upon particular points, and the observations of the most eminent miners and geologists of Europe will be open before us, to guide our subterranean operations. The introduction of the steam engine into this section of country will form a new era in the mining of Missouri, and produce the same astonishing effects which have resulted in other places from this capital invention. It is only a few years since this power was first employed in the South American mines. In 1818, Don Abadia imported a steam engine from Great Britain to drain the mines of Pasco, in the neighbourhood of Lima. This gave the proprietor such an accumulation of power, that the quantity of ore was increased from 200 mule loads per month to 1500 per week. Several of the most profitable mines in this district, particularly the noted one called New Diggings, have been abandoned solely in consequence of the influx of water, and the utter insufficiency of the windlass and bucket to remove it.

In smelting the ore, wood is the only kind of fuel used. No mineral coal has yet been discovered in this part of Missouri, nor do we think there is the least reason to suppose that it will be found. As the country is, in the main, but thinly wooded, the time must come when the ore will be transported to the banks of the Mississippi to be smelted; for it will be cheaper to convey the ore to the river, than the coal to the mines, in the precise amount, that the cost of transportation of the whole quantity of coal for 30 or 40 miles, exceeds the expense upon that part of the ore which must be deducted for dross. The metal must, in either case, find a market through that stream.

These mines, at present, constitute a part of the national domain, having been reserved in the sales of land. They are leased to individuals by application at the War Department, under authority derived from the President. The rent demanded is one-tenth of the produce, payable in lead. One-sixth is paid as the rent of several lead mines in Scotland ;* one-sixth is also stated to be the average rent of the tin mines in Cornwall. One-fifth was the rent paid at the silver mines of Peru until 1736; it was afterward reduced to onetenth, and is now one-twentieth.‡

The quantity of lead smelted here during the present year will be considerable. Three hundred thousand one hundred and sixty-five pounds were received at Mr. Bates's store-house at Herculaneum during the months of May, June, and July. No diminution in the receipts was expected to take place in the ensuing months. The mines now most in vogue are Austin's, Bibb's, Jones's, Mine à Robino, Old Mines, Belle Fountain, Shibboleth, and Mine à Joe. A mine consists of an indefinite number of excavations, situated near each other, in a small circle of country; but it would be difficult, perhaps, to delineate accurate boundaries, the caprice of discovery having a constant tendency to alter and enlarge them.

The greatest lead mines on the globe, according to Professor Jameson,§ are those of Great Britain, which produce an annual quantity of 250,000 quintals. The next in point of importance are those of the several kingdoms and states of Germany. France yields 60,000 quintals; Spain 32,000; and Russia 10,000. Although we have estimated, from imperfect data, the quantity of lead raised from the earth in Missouri, at

* Smith.

Frezier and Ulloa.

+ Borlace.

§ Jameson's Mineralogy, 2d edit.

about 25,000 quintals per annum, yet it must appear evident, that the mineral capacities of the country are adequate to employ profitably almost any amount of labour that can be applied to them.

Mining countries are commonly barren; but this is only partially so. Though it abounds in minerals, it also yields an abundance of grain. But if we clearly apprehend the Scottish theorist, those portions whichare comparatively steril, derive an additional value from the proximity of those that are decidedly fertile. "The value of the most barren lands," says Adam Smith, "is not diminished by the neighbourhood of the most fertile. On the contrary, it is generally increased by it. The great number of people maintained by the fertile lands, afford a market to many parts of the produce of the barren, which they could never have found among those whom their own produce could maintain."

CHAPTER XIV.

Return to St. Louis.
Enigmatical Prints.

Objects of Curiosity. Mounds. Gov. Clark's Museum. Depart for Chicago. Pass the Mouth of the Missouri: Portage Des Sioux. Enter the Illinois River. Mauvais Terre. *Pass the Sangamo. Putrefying Vegetation. Enter Peoria Lake. Fort Clark. Observations on the Comparative Advantages of Settlement in Illinois.

HAVING revisited whatever invited examination in the environs of Potosi, I hastened to return, and reached St. Louis on the 1st of August, in the evening. On passing Herculaneum, I learned that our voyageurs, whom I left on the Ohio, had passed during my absence, which furnished an additional motive to urge me forward. A Chippewa canoe was a novelty on this part of the Mississippi, and attracted some attention on their landing. Being asked if they did not find the navigation very difficult, Ah, mon Dieu, replied one of the canoemen, C'est le diable. They had, however, by dint of great industry, made very good speed, having performed the voyage from the vicinity of Golconda, on the Ohio, to St. Louis, in eight days.

The weather was now very warm, with frequent and