GEOLOGY. 249 



America, it had been conveyed to its present situation from a 

 distance. This our examinations have disproved. Disco- 

 veries of copper ore have indeed been made on a sloping 

 hill-side near Mineral Point, within three or four feet of the 

 surface ; and there the ore was found disseminated and im- 

 bedded in an ochreous earth.* But on following this depo- 

 sit to the opposite side of the ravine (on section twenty-two, 

 township five, range three east of the fourth principal meri- 

 dian), the copper ore was traced into a crevice, and a regular 

 vein has there been worked to the depth of thirty or forty 

 feet. The pieces of copper ore raised on this spot com- 

 monly weighed from a few ounces to ten or twelve pounds ; 

 and one mass thence procured was estimated at five hundred 

 pounds. 



" The course of this copper vein is from southeast to 

 northwest ; and if this line be produced either way, from the 

 discoveries at Mineral Point, it will strike, almost exactly, 

 the discoveries of copper ore northwest on Blue River, and 

 southeast on the Peccatonnica — a proof that the copper ore 

 is not a superficial and vagrant deposit, but exists in veins 

 of uniform bearing ; and that these veins are continuous, 

 and in all probability extensive. 



'' It is found in several localities in sufiicient abundance 

 to repay well the labor of the miner. If there were a steady 

 demand for copper ore in the Territory, the miners could 

 afford, as I was informed by themselves, to raise copper ore 

 at the same price as lead ore — namely, from one and a half 

 to two cents per pound. It would be in good demand, and 

 be extensively raised, but for the capital and skill necessary 



* " This earth frequently contains particles, more or less numerous, of 

 copper ore, and is then popularly termed ' gozzin,' and employed as a flux 

 in the copper furnaces. The gozzin of Wisconsin yields, by analysis, from 

 six to nine per cent, of pure copper — a large per centage for such ore. 



12* 



