JO DATIESS COUNTY. 41 



description of the crevices, leads, lodes and diggings, nor a scientific 

 discussion of the modes of occurrence and phenomena observed in its 

 Avorkings. It is rather the province of this report to present the geo- 

 logical formations of the county, and some general remarks upon the 

 extent of its mineral and other resources. The "Lead Region" has been 

 closely examined and ably written upon by Professor J. D. WHITNEY, 

 for the three States of Illinois. Wisconsin and Iowa. It will be unne- 

 ary to repeat here what lie has presented so well in the first volume 

 of the Reports of the Illinois Geological Survey. That volume will be 

 as accessible to the common reader as tbis, and to that volume we refer 

 the reader for surveys and descriptions of the crevices and leads, and a 

 detailed account of the different diggings, their positions, peculiarities 

 of form, extent of working, amount of ore produced, and facts collected 

 in regard to them. It would be useless to write these things over again; 

 and if it was not. my knowledge of the lead regions and opportunities of 

 investigating its facts and phenomena have been far too limited to un- 

 dertake the task. A brief resume of some of the facts and history of 

 lead and the lead region may not however be out of place. 



Galena, or the sulphuret of lead, called in the common speech of the 

 lead region 'mineral,** when pure, is composed of 86.55 pure lead and 

 13.45 sulphur. It crystalizes in the form of the cube and its secondaries, 

 lias a perfect and easily obtained cleavage, and a bright, silvery, metalic 

 luster on fresh fracture. The lead ore obtained in this county is nearly 

 pure galena. It sometimes contains faint traces of silver. 



The discovery of this lead was made in an early period. There can 

 be no doubt, I think, that the early voyageur, trader and explorer. LE 

 SFEUR, on the 25th day of August, A. D. 1700, discovered and described 

 FeA-er river under the name of "The River of the Mines." From 

 this, and the description of a mine found, in his journal, he is generally 

 considered the discoverer of the Galena lead mines. Subsequently to 

 this, and prior to the working of these mines by white men, they were 

 undoubtedly worked to some extent by the Indians, in their rude way. 

 These primitive miners or rather their squaws, perhaps rudely drifted 

 into the hills, and loosened the mineral by building fires against the 

 rocks and then throwing water on them, as ancient mining was once 

 carried on in the copper mines of the Lake Superior region. Some eighty 

 years after this the wife of an Indian chief, Peosta by name, struck a 

 lead just below the city of Dubuque, which was worked by JFLIEX Du- 

 BFQFE. under permission from the Indian tribes. In 1819 the present 

 city of Galena was first settled, by a man named BOUTHILLIER. In 

 1820 several others joined him, and a trading house was opened by 

 JESSE W. SHULL and Dr. MriK. The adjoining country was a wilder- 

 ness. By this time the Galena mines had begun to attract attention. 



