240 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



During the years 1818 and 1819 Henry R. Schoolcraft made a trip 



throughout what is now known as the lead region of the Mississippi 



Valley, and in November of the last-named year published, in the 



form of an octavo volume of some 300 paeres, a book 



Schoolcraft's 



Explorations, entitled A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri; 



Including Some Observations on the Mineralogy, 

 Geology, Geography, Antiquities, Soil, Climate, Population, and Pro- 

 ductions of Missouri and Arkansas and Other Sections of the Western 

 Country. The work contained little of geological importance, the 

 purport of the trip being mainly to study the lead deposits of the 

 region. He described the whole mineral country as "bottomed" on 

 primitive limestone, though he found quartz rock and later sand rock 

 very common in the southern section of the Arkansas country. Sec- 

 ondary limestone was also met with, but was far less common than in 



Ohio, Indiana, Connecticut, and Illinois, 

 the ore itself being found in the decompo- 

 sition products from the primitive lime- 

 stone. He mentioned the occurrence of 

 granite in Washington and Madison coun- 

 ties, also greenstone porphyry and iron 

 ore, and correct^ described the granite as 

 being the only mass of its kind known to 

 exist between the primitive ranges of the 

 Allegheny and Rocky mountains, being sur- 

 rounded on all sides and to an almost 

 immeasurable extent with secondary lime- 

 stone. He gave also a descriptive catalogue 

 of the minerals found in the State. Among 

 them mention was made of the Hint from 

 Girardeau County, several varieties of quartz, including the Arkansas 

 novaculite; a red pipestone from the Falls of St. Anthony, which is 

 evidently the catlinite of more recent writers, but which he called stea- 

 tite; and other minerals, including baryte, nuorite, blende, antimony, 

 native copper, etc. He described briefly the micaceous iron ore of 

 Iron Mountain, the coal found near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and other 

 minerals which need not be mentioned in detail. 



Schoolcraft was one of those all-round naturalists and investigators 

 such as could exist only in the early days of science, when it was pos- 

 sible for one mind to embrace or include all knowledge, keep track of 

 its development, and at the same time aid in its advancement. A man 

 apparently of more than ordinary vigor, daring, and perseverence, he 

 early became interested in the work of exploration, his Held being, 

 however, limited mainly to the Mississippi Valley and the region of 

 the Great Lakes. His geological work was purely of the reconnais- 

 sance type, but was of the greatest value in the then existing condi- 

 tion of knowledge regarding the regions visited, the lead regions of the 



Fig. 6. — Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. 



