4B Wisconsin and Missouri Lead Region. 



oil government land should by law be subject to a tax of ten per 

 cent., paid in lead by the smelters, and the lands are not subject 

 to entry. But since the year 1835 none of these dues have been 

 collected, though a government superintendent has always been 

 appointed for this purpose, and now no attempts are ever made to 

 collect the ore rents, neither are any questions asked at the land 

 offices whether or no the lands about to be entered are known to 

 contain mineral. It is generally believed that a law will be 

 passed taking off all restrictions on mineral lands, both as to entry 

 and subsequent claims for ore rents. 



The smelters are for the most part, a distinct class from the 

 miners. They are men of a little capital; who expend it in es- 

 tablishing one or more furnaces in what they judge a suitable 

 locality, both for convenience of water power and proximity to 

 mines that promise to be permanent in their supply of ore. Their 

 business is to visit the mines, and every day bargain for so much 

 mineral, sometimes of one set of miners, sometimes of another. 

 The ore is weighed out by the miners, the smelter sends his 

 teams for it, and has it weighed again at the furnace. The price 

 fluctuates with the price of lead, with the greater or less amount 

 of competition, either among the smelters or miners, and varies 

 with the distance from the shipping port, which is now Galena 

 in Illinois. As the smelters generally have no capital to spare, 

 they must either sell their lead as they make it for what it wull 

 bring, or if they ship it themselves they are compelled to cease 

 their operations until they receive their returns, for they are 

 obliged to pay for their mineral in cash, to secure the good will 

 of the miners, and it may be ten months before they receive the 

 proceeds of their lead sent to the Eastern market. On this ac- 

 count, and from the unsteady character of the miners, who wan- 

 der about, as their fancy directs, from place to place, there are 

 few furnaces that keep in blast for a great length of time; they 

 go for a week, or a month, or six months, and stop as irregularly. 

 No supply of mineral is ever bought up when it is low, though 

 lead is often kept stacked up, waiting a higher price, and the fur- 

 nace out of blast for want of means to buy more ore. 



The furnaces are much improved within a few years past. 

 The ore was formerly melted down on log heaps and a small por- 

 tion of the metal thus extracted at a great waste of fuel. Now 

 they are of the most approved forms and constructed with par- 



