296 APPENDIX. 



is very often startled by flocks of the prairie-hen rising up in his 

 path. The surface soil is a rich, black alluvion ; it yields abund- 

 ant crops of corn, and, so far as they have been tried, all the 

 cereal gramina. I have never, either in the west or out of the 

 west, seen a richer soil, or more stately fields of corn and oats, 

 than upon one of the plateaux of the Blue mound. 



Such is the country which appears to be richer in ores of lead 

 than any other mineral district in the world — which yielded forty 

 millions of pounds in seven years — produced a single lump of 

 ore of two thousand cubic feet — and appears adequate to supply 

 almost any amount of this article that the demands of commerce 

 require. 



The river of Galena rises in the mineral plains of Iowa county, 

 in that part of the North- Western Territory which is attached, for 

 the purposes of temporary government, to Michigan. It is made 

 up of clear and permanent springs, and has a descent which af- 

 fords a very valuable water-power. This has been particularly 

 remarked at the curve called Millseat-bend. No change in its 

 general course, which is south-west, is I believe apparent after 

 it enters the north-west angle of the state of Illinois. The town 

 of Galena, the capital of the mining country, occupies a some- 

 what precipitous semicircular bend, on the right (or north) bank 

 of the river, six or seven miles from its entrance into the Missis- 

 sippi. Backwater, from the latter, gives the stream itself the 

 appearance, as it bears the name, of a " river," and admits steam- 

 boat navigation thus far. It is a rapid brook immediately above 

 the town, and of no further value for the purpose of navigation. 

 Lead is brought in from the smelting furnaces, on heavy ox-teams, 

 capable of carrying several tons at a load. I do not know that 

 water has bee?i, or that it cannot be made subservient in the trans- 

 portation of this article from the mines. The streams themselves 

 are numerous and permanent, although they are small, and it 

 would require the aid of so many of these, on any projected 

 route, that it is to be feared the supply of water would be inade- 

 quate. To remedy this deficiency, the Wisconsin itself might 

 be relied on. Could the waters of this river be conducted in a 

 canal along its valley from the portage to the bend at Arena, they 

 might, from this point, be deflected in a direct line to Galena. 



