72 Wisconsin and Missouri Lead Region. 
hogs. But the wolves and a sickness peculiar to the sheep here, 
will prevent their being raised to any extent. 
It is'a good country for water power, fine.springs, ever flowing 
and never freezing, bursting out on the hillsides, and sometimes 
affording power enough for any works at their very source. Some 
of these are described as cufiosities, such as are seldom met with 
elsewhere. Connected with these springs by similar causes, are 
the phenomena of sinking creeks, natural tunnels through the 
hills, and vast eaves hardly explored as yet, all due to the ten- 
dency of the limestone to. be worn and hollowed out by the ac- 
tion of water.. The river b ing supplied by these springs, and 
running quick, never freezes over; but it is only at intervals, 
except in the spring months, that it is up so that rafts can run. 
When they do go they are carried down very rapidly, but there 
are no dangerous rapids ; boats are sometimes dashed against the 
eliffs in the sharp turns of the river, which are frequent. Steam- 
boats have come up within eighty miles of the Forks, (Jack’s 
Fork and the Current,) and itis thought that if there were an 
object, they might come to the Forks in the spring months an 
during the winter. 
There‘are about ten mills, prisidicndien eoaindiaailes alas the Cur- 
rent and its branches, north of the Arkansaw line. Rafts of piteh 
_ pine are sent down every year in great numbers. The boards 
bring from $15 to $20 per thousand feet, but they may be bought 
for $10 at the mills. They are put together to the amount of 
six in thickness, and so run nine miles below the state ate wae 
the rafts are doubled. 
The copper that was made was sent down on large flat post 
which were constructed for the purpose, and could earry from 
twenty to thirty tons each. About seventy five tons altogether 
were made on the Current and thus shipped for New Orleans. © 
The statistical account of the expenses of making lead, which 
I had no means in Missouri, as before mentioned, of obtaining; 
cannot differ essentially from the account given of the Wisconsin 
Stenhoes There is this difference, however, in the price of the 
% or lead ore, that when it is sold by the miners in Wis- 
consin for from $15 to $16 per thousand pounds, it brings them 
in Missouri about $18 for the same quantity. Lead is worth 
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