Austin, who has erected a good smelting furnace. 

 This ore is not of the richest kind, but a greater 

 quantity has been worked here, than in any other 

 part of the country, from which the owner has" 

 derived great profits. The ore is taken out of 

 the ground in an open prairie which is elevated 

 nearly one hundred feet above the bed of the 

 creek, and is supposed to extend over some 

 thousands of acres. The mineral is found within 

 two feet of the surface, in a strata of gravel, in 

 which it lies in lumps, from one to fifty pounds, 

 weight. Under this strata is a sand rock, easily 

 broken up with a pick-axe, and when exposed to 

 the air, readily crumbles to fine sand. The ore 

 intermixed in the sand rock is similar to that in ' 

 the upper gravel strata. Under the sand rock is 

 a strata of red clay about six feet thick. Beneath , 

 the clay is the best ore, in lumps from ten to two 

 or three hundred pounds weight, the outside of 

 which is frequently covered with a gold or silver ' 

 coloured talky substance ; some portion of arsenic 

 and sulphur; and more or less of spar, antimony, 

 and zinc, are sometimes found intermixed with 

 the ore. Some of this ore will yield from sixty 

 to seventy-five per cent. 



About five miles from Barton's, in an eastern! 

 direction, is an old mine, discovered by the 

 French, as early as their first settlement in this 

 country, and was worked until Barton erected a 

 furnace at his mine. It was then neglected un- 

 til the year 1802, when a number of French fam- 



