70 Jsfotke of Mr. Schoolcraft's View of 



We must refer our readers to the book itself for a clear 

 account of the furnaces and furnace operations, employed 

 for smelting the lead : it will be the more intelligible, as it 

 is accompanied by two good plates containing views and 

 sections of the furnaces. A circumstance which appears 

 very extraordinary is, that the furnaces are most commonly 

 built of limestone, which is of course calcined, and brought 

 to the condition of quick lime by a few blasts, and then it 

 crumbles and the furnaces must be rebuilt. 



^ The ore yields at first fifty per cent, and then the ashes 

 give fifteen per cent, more— sixty-five* in the whole.f 



Custom, says the author, has established a number of 

 laws among the miners, with regard to digging, which have 

 a tendency to prevent disputes. Whenever a discovery is 

 made, the person claiming it is entitled to claim the ground 

 for twenty-five feet, in every direction from his pit, giving 

 him fifty feet square. Other diggers are each entitled to 

 twelve feet square, which is just enough to sink a pit, and 

 afford room for throwing out the earth. Each one meas- 

 ures and stakes off his ground ; and though he should not 

 begin his work for several days afterwards, no person will 

 intrude upon it. On this spot he digs down, but is not al- 

 lowed to run drifts horizontally, so as to break into or un- 

 dermine the pits of others. If appearances are unpromis- 

 ing, or he strikes the rock and chooses to abandon his pit,, 

 he can go on any unoccupied ground, and, observing the 

 same precautions, begin anew. In such a case, the aban- 

 doned pit may be occupied by any other person ; and 

 sometimes large bodies of ore are found by the second oc- 

 cupant, by a little work, which would have richly rewarded 

 the labours of the first had he persevered. 



Mr. Schoolcraft, from various particulars, infers, that the 

 average annual produce of the Missouri lead mines, as men- 

 tioned before, is three million pounds per annum, and the 

 lead was worth in 1819, at the mines, four cents per pound.f 



^ Accofdinsr to Dr. MearJe, the Missouri ore adords oii!v a trace of 

 silver. (See Bruce's Mini. Jonrna!, Vol. I. p. iO. 



t Mr. Schoolcraft t!)iiiks it mny yield sRventy per cent. — it gave iiim by 

 analysis eighly-two per cent. 



:!:" The price paid to the miners for raising the ore, and dniiverin.s; il ready 

 dressed to the smelters, is two dollars per ewt. payable in m-^ lead.'' 



