416 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vol. XXVI, 1919 



During the years immediately fqllowing the promulgation of the 

 new ruling large numbers of prospectors and miners entered the 

 region. Curiously enough they made agreements with the Indians 

 rather than with the government. It was not until 1816 that the 

 Indian rights were definitely defined and a "tract five leagues square 

 on the Mississippi river, to be designated by the President," which 

 the Indian treaty provided, was located in the lead region. The 

 first leases from the government were not executed until the be- 

 ginning of 1822, when four miners from Kentucky located 160 

 acres each. They were protected by a detachment of United States 

 soldiers. 



After granting the leases the government often failed to stand by 

 the owners thereof. Soon continuous strife prevailed among the 

 miners. They began to pay little attention to the regulations, but 

 carried on operations without license, and with the aid of the In- 

 dians. Where there was one lease granted there were a score of 

 unlicensed miners. So disastrous to all concerned was the experi- 

 ment of leasing and so inconsequential was the revenue derived from 

 this source that Congress finally, in 1846, abandoned the plan, and 

 a year later placed the lands on the market for sale. Little wonder 

 that during these years such remarkable industry was displayed by 

 the "Indians," as was from time to time reported. A United States 

 Indian agent, who passed through the region in 1810, recorded that 

 the Indians were finding mining more profitable than hunting and 

 were producing during that year 400,000 pounds of the metal. 



INAUGURATION OF THE NEW YORK SYSTEM IN THE WEST 



In the third and fourth decades of the last century New York 

 geologists were enaged in working out a detailed stratigraphic sec- 

 tion of their rocks. So complete was this sequence that they became 

 ambitious to establish for the world at large a New York System, 

 after the fashion of Murchison's Siluria and Sedgwick's Cambria 

 in England. But the New York section proved to be too large, and 

 to embrace a succession of superior rank. It was found to be about 

 the equivalent of what we now call the Paleozoic section, thus in- 

 cluding Murchison's, Sedgwick's and Lonsdale's systems. Following 

 Murchison the New York geologists gave geographic titles to their 

 formations, which names have spread to all parts of the country. 



When, then, at the solicitation of Governor Grimes, James Hall 

 was called from New York to conduct the newly established geolog- 

 ical survey of Iowa, he at once proceeded to transplant the New 





