432 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



lent quality, from the Osage river, where it has lately 

 been discovered, and will prove of great value to the 

 prairie region of the west, it being much lighter for 

 transportation, and answering in the place of charcoal 

 for mechanical purposes. 



Mr. Matthews informs me that the oak ridges of this 

 country, which are at present but little cultivated, are 

 very fertile, and the north sides invariably the most so; 

 and that they produce as great a burthen of blue grass as 

 any land that he is acquainted with. Here then is another 

 "good country for sheep." Yet none are here, for no one 

 has money to buy sheep in a country where silver turns 

 to lead; and often stays turned. For although fortunes 

 are sometimes made by mining, yet taken as a class, the 

 miners are not as well off in the world, as those who fol- 

 low the slow and sure road to comfortable independence 

 in the cultivation of the earth. Jan. 25th, I visited one 

 of the largest mining establishments in this part of the 

 State, and at present yielding probably the most lead for 

 the amount of labor employed, of any one in the United 

 States. It is known as the "Mammoth Diggings," and 

 is situated in Jefferson county, 55 miles south-west of 

 St Louis. The method of hunting for mineral is this: 

 a man goes upon any land where the external appear- 

 ances indicate mineral ; in fact it is often found in small 

 quantities upon the surface, and commences "prospect- 

 ing," that is, digging holes 3 or 4 feet in diameter, and 

 more or less deep as the prospect induces, and if he dis- 

 covers lead, then he goes on "proving" until he finds 

 whether it is worth following, or till the lead give out. 

 The whole country is full of these prospect holes, some of 

 which prove barren, and in others, the miner discovers 

 mineral enough to pay him for his labor, but the "pros- 

 pect is too poor" to induce him to penetrate into the solid 

 rock below the earth and loose stones near the surface, 

 and he abandons that spot and goes to another, in the 

 hope of eventually making a "discovery," which will lead 

 to quick and certain fortune. 



