564: APPE5TDIX. 



Among the flowers, the plant called rosin-weed attracts attention 

 by its gigantic stature, and it is accompanied, as certainly as sub- 

 stance by shadow, by the wild indigo, two plants which were 

 afterwards detected, of less luxuriant growth, on Fox Eiver, The 

 roads are in their natural condition ; they are excellent, except for 

 a few yards where streams are crossed. At such places there is 

 a plunge into soft, black muck, and it requires all the powers of 

 a horse harnessed to a wagon to emerge from the stream. 



On reaching Gratiot's Grove, I handed letters of introduction 

 to Mr. H. and B. Gratiot. These gentlemen appear to be exten- 

 sively engaged in smelting. They conducted me to see the ore 

 prepared for smelting in the log furnace; and also the preparation 

 of such parts of it for the ash furnace as do not undergo complete 

 fusion in the first process. The ash furnace is a very simple kind 

 of air furnace, with a grate so arranged as to throw a reverbe- 

 rating flame upon the hearth where the prepared ore is laid. It 

 is built against a declivity, and charged, by throwing the mate- 

 rials to be operated upon, down the flue. A silicious flux is used ; 

 and the scoria is tapped and suffered to flow out, from the side of 

 the furnace, before drawing off the melted lead. The latter is 

 received in an excavation made in the earth, from which it is 

 ladled out into iron moulds. The whole process is conducted in 

 the open air, with sometimes a slight shed. The lead ore is piled 

 in cribs of logs, which are roofed. Hammers, ladles, a kind of 

 tongs, and some other iron tools are required. The simplicity of 

 the process, the absence of external show in buildings, and the 

 direct and ready application of the means to the end, are remark- 

 able, as pleasing characteristics about the smelting establishment. 



The ore used is the common sulphuret, with a foliated, glitter- 

 ing and cubical fracture. It occurs with scarcely any adhering 

 gangue. Cubical masses of it are found, at some of the diggings, 

 which are studded over with minute crystals of calcareous spar. 

 These crystals, when examined, have the form of the dog-tooth 

 spar. This broad, square-shaped, and square-broken mineral, is 

 taken from east and west leads^ is most easy to smelt, and yields 

 the greatest per centum of lead. It is estimated to produce fifty 

 per cent, from the log furnace, and about sixteen more when 

 treated with a flux in the ash furnace. 



Miners classify their ore from its position in the mine. Ore 



