302 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



started from Olean on the Alleghany River for a journey 

 down the Ohio and up the Mississippi in 1818. A large com- 

 pany of intending emigrants had gathered there waiting for 

 the season to open, and Schoolcraft took passage in the first 

 ark. Arrived at Pittsburg, he stopped to explore the geology 

 of the Monongahela Valley, and was greatly interested in the 

 rich coal and iron beds. He stopped to visit the Grave Creek 

 mound and the ancient works at Marietta. At Louisville he 

 found " organic remains " of several species in the limestone 

 rocks of the falls, and published anonymously in the paper 

 some notices of its mineralogy. At the mouth of the Cumber- 

 land River he exchanged the ark for a keel-boat or barge, 

 with which, propelled by poles pushing on the bottom, he 

 made from three to ten miles a day against the swift current 

 of the Mississippi to Herculaneum, Mo. On this voyage he 

 travelled over a large part of the west bank on foot, and 

 gleaned several facts in its mineralogy and geology which 

 made it an initial point in his future observations. He spent 

 three months in examining the lead mines, personally visiting 

 every mine or digging of consequence in the Missouri country 

 and tracing its geological relations into Arkansas. Hearing 

 of syenite suitable for millstones on the St. Francis, he visited 

 that stream and discovered the primitive tract ; and he pushed 

 his examinations west beyond the line of settlement into the 

 Ozark Mountains. He now determined to call the attention 

 of the Government to the importance of its taking care of its 

 domain in the mines, and with this purpose packed his collec- 

 tions and took passage in the new steamer St. Louis for New 

 Orleans. Hence, having inquired into the 1 formation of the 

 delta of the Mississippi, he sailed by brig for New York. He 

 opened his collections and invited examination of them, pub- 

 lished a book on the mines and physical geography of the 

 West and a letter on its resources, and went to Washington 

 to present his views on the care of the mines to the officers of 

 the Government. While he was looking for a secretary within 

 whose purview the matter fell, Mr. Calhoun invited him to 

 accompany General Cass, Governor of Michigan, as naturalist 

 and mineralogist on an expedition to explore the sources of 

 the Mississippi and to inquire into the supposed value of the 

 Lake Superior copper mines. He accepted the position, 

 though the compensation was small, because, he says, " it 



