562 APPENDIX. 



are covered witli soil and with trees. Numerous brooks of limpid 

 water traverse the plains, and find their way into either the Wis- 

 consin, Rock River, or the Mississippi. The common deer is still 

 in possession of its favorite haunts; and the traveller is very often 

 startled by flocks of the prairie-hen rising up in his path. The 

 surface soil is a rich black alluvion ; it yields abundant crops of 

 corn, and, so far as they have been tried, all the cereal gramina, 

 I have never, either in the West or out of the A¥est, seen a richer 

 soil, or more stately fields of corn and oats, than upon one of the 

 plateaux of the Blue Mound. 



Such is the country which appears to be richer in ores of lead 

 than any other mineral district in the world — which yielded forty 

 millions of pounds in seven years — produced a single lump of 

 ore of two thousand cubic feet — and appears adequate to supply 

 almost any amount of this article that the demands of commerce 

 require. 



The River of Galena rises in the mineral plains of Iowa county, 

 in that part of the Northwestern Territory which is attached, for 

 the purposes of temporary government, to Michigan. It is made 

 up of clear and permanent springs, and has a descent which af- 

 fords a very valuable water-power. This has been particularly 

 remarked at the curve called Mill-seat Bend. No change in its 

 general course, which is southwest, is, I believe, apparent after it 

 enters the northwest angle of the State of Illinois. The town of 

 Galena, the capital of the mining country, occupies a somewhat 

 precipitous semicircular bend, on the right (or north) bank of the 

 river, six or seven miles from its entrance into the Mississippi. 

 Backwater, from the latter, gives the stream itself the appear- 

 ance, as it bears the name, of a "river," and admits steamboat 

 navigation thus far. It is a rapid brook immediately above the 

 town, and of no further value for the purpose of navigation. 

 Lead is brought in from the smelting furnaces, on heavy ox- 

 teams, capable of carrying several tons at a load. I do not know 

 that water has been, or that it cannot be made subservient in the 

 transportation of this article from the mines. The streams them- 

 selves are numerous and permanent, although they are small, and 

 it would require the aid of so many of these, on any projected 

 route, that it is to be feared the supply of water would be inade- 

 quate. To remedy this deficiency, the AYisconsin itself might be 



