JO DAVIESS COUNT Y. 49 



About three miles east and a little south of Vinegar Hill Diggings, 

 the Council Hill ranges are located. The heaviest ones are situated on 

 the north half of section 25, and the south half of section 24, township 

 L.".'. range 1 east. They are known as the Xorth Diggings, and cover a 

 tract of about forty seven acres, on which is over one hundred veins 

 running north-eavSt and south-west. The principal, medium, and smaller 

 shafts, number nearly one thousand. The South Diggings, on the south 

 of the Hill, are of small importance. The east half of section 36, town- 

 ship L".'. range 1 east, and the west half of section 31, and the south 

 half of section 30. township 20, range 2 east, have upon them diggings, 

 the most important of which is the Rocky Point and Bolt's Lots. 



Two or three lots and diggings along Fever river, between Council 

 Hill and Galena, have yielded considerable mineral. The Burton, the 

 Beeler, the Allan Rea, the Witmer, and the Wright lots, are the most 

 important of the- 



The Apple River Diggings, near the station of that name, on the 

 Illinois Central Railroad, have yielded heavy bodies of ore. It is 

 generally found in east and west shallow crevices, which did not hold 

 their richness to any considerable depth. 



A few scattered and unimportant diggings around Warren, complete 

 the list of the diggings or sub-districts into which the lead fields of this 

 county may be divided. It will now readily be seen, how small an area 

 of the Galena rocks are productive lead-bearing rocks. All grouped 

 together, would make perhaps less than a township of land. 



Price. The following table shows the price of mineral per thousand 

 pounds, for the last 10 years, as delivered by the miner to the purchaser, 

 at the mouth of the shaft. The ore was always paid for in gold, until 

 the greenback era drove gold out of circulation : 



1853 $37 1861 |28 



1-M 38 1862 40 



Ir.V. 32 1863 55 



1856 35 1864 75 



34 1865 65 



29 1866 60 



1859 30 1867 60 



leCO 32 1968 55 



Modes of Occurrence. The crevices, veins and caverns in which the 

 lead ore is found, are all. perhaps, cracks of shrinkage, into which the 

 lead subsequently became deposited. The most common and widely 

 disseminated form in which lead ore occurs, is known among miners as 

 " float mineral.' 1 In many places the beds of red ferruginous and ochery 

 clay have scattered through them galena in considerable quantities. 

 It is generally found in small, irregularly-shaped pieces; sometimes in 

 small grains, and sometimes in good sized crystals and chunks. Al- 



