Rocky Mountains. 277 



will be sufficient to convert these tracts into productive 

 farms, but the inconvenience resulting from the difficulty of 

 communication and access to the different parts of the coun- 

 try, will for a long time retard their settlement. 



In several parts of the Arkansa territory, we were shown 

 dollars which were believed to have been coined in some of 

 the upper settlements of White river, and it has been cur- 

 rently reported, that mines of silver exist, and are wrought 

 there. It appears, however, upon examination, that much 

 spurious coin is here in circulation, and it is probable that 

 the White river country, owes its present reputation for mi- 

 neral wealth, to the successful labors of some manufacturer 

 of imitation dollars. 



Since the time of De Soto, it has been confidently asserted 

 by many who have written concerning Louisiana, that mines 

 of jTold and silver exist in that part of the country of which 

 we are speaking. In an old map by Du Pratz, a gold mine 

 is placed somewhere near the confluence of the Illinois and 

 the Arkansa, a silver mine on the Merameg, and he says, " I 

 myself saw a rivulet whose waters rolled down gold dust.* 

 We are informed by Schoolcraft, that granite exists about 

 the sources of the St. Francis, which are situated near those 

 of White river, p. 213. Of the extent and character of this 

 formation of granite we have not yet been able to form any 

 definite ideas. It is however by no means improbable that to 

 its plates of yellow and white mica we are to look for the 

 origin of the fabulous accounts of the precious metals in 

 those regions. Like the country of the gilded king, the El 

 Dorado of South America, it is probable the gold and silver 

 mines of the Arkansa territory will recede before the pro- 

 gress of examination, first into the wildest and most inacces- 



* " The mine of Merameg, which is silver, is pretty near the conflu- 

 ence of the river which gives it name, which is a great advantage to those 

 who would work it, because they might easily by that means have their 

 goods from Europe. It is situate about five hundred leagues from tbe sea.' 



Du Pralz's Louisiana, p. ^^4, vol. i. 



