52 Wisconsin and Missouri Lead Region. 



business, if conducted under the same circumstances that the 

 average of them now are. 



It is evident, however, that the manner in which the business 

 is conducted is far from being perfect — that great savings maybe 

 effected by means of sufficient capital to be drawn upon when 

 required ; the miners being encouraged by it to keep up the sup- 

 ply of ore, and the furnace thus enabled to keep in blast, while 

 also the power is afforded of buying up quantities of ore when 

 it is at a low price. So lead itself may be advantageously bought 

 sometimes of other smelters, or an advance made upon it in an- 

 ticipation of its sale in the eastern market. 



The possession of titnber lands also would be no small saving 

 in a district where wood is worth $5 per cord, as it is in the win- 

 ter at Mineral Point, and where charcoal sells for the exorbitant 

 price of twelve and a half cents per bushel. 



The item of hauling may perhaps be somewhat diminished, 

 but this is doubtful. The present method almost universally 

 adopted is, to employ men who come with their own teams from 

 Illinois and take loads from the furnaces to Galena, or, as is some- 

 times done, to Milwaukie. From Mineral Point to Galena, the 

 common price is twenty cents per hundred pounds, distance forty 

 miles. They use oxen and do not stop at taverns. The oxen 

 for about six months in the year, pick up grass enough on the 

 prairies where they stop in the day or to camp at night. If a 

 man used his own teams and hired drivers, they would require, 

 besides their wages, board at taverns. Though I believed at the 

 time I first considered the subject, that by purchasing mules in 

 Missouri, where they can be bought for from f 25 to $40 each, 

 and keeping one's own teams, the cost of transportation might be 

 much lessened, I now think that unless the business would cer- 

 tainly keep them constantly employed, it would not be worth 

 while to try the experiment, particularly should oats cost 37^ cts. 

 per bushel, as they did in the summer of 1841, even after the 

 harvest. Each working mule requires about twelve quarts a day, 

 oxen none. Most of the smelters own several teams of horses, 

 which are generally used for hauling ore. Mules no doubt might 

 be advantageously substituted for them. 



The freight from Galena to St. Louis varies in price according 

 to the stage of the water. The charges are from 15 cts. to 30 

 cts. per 100 lbs. This difference may often make it an object to 



