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from twelve to fifteen miles broad by land, through which the river passes for upwards of thirty miles, on account of its very winding course. It is said to extend thirty or forty miles on each side of the St. Peter's. It is difficult to traverse by land on account of the swampy nature of the ground. I was also informed there was an extensive lake in the central parts of it, on the south side. The current becomes strong after entering the Bois Franc. As an evidence of the nature of the incidents which induce the Indians to give names to a locality, Mahabbohpah, or Swan on the ground, an elevated piece of ground with trees on it, on the right bank, may be mentioned. A Sioux shot a swan flying there. The islands in this river are small and edged with willows. On the banks of the river I have seen them forty to fifty feet high. Further up the Bois Franc district a stream comes in from the left bank, called Weetah-wakatah, or Tall island, and about five miles higher up some ledges of horizontal fawn-colored limestone jut out on the right bank, very cherty and somewhat vesicular; near the surface it takes a reddish salmon color, resembling very much some beds I had previously seen on the Wiskonsan and Upper Mississippi. Within a few yards of these ledges, and north of them, a beautiful pellucid stream comes in, containing the purest water I had seen in the country. I could not learn that any name had been given to it, and as it is in the immediate vicinity of the first calcareous rock I had met with in place here, and its purity rendering it a very rare stream in a country where all are turbid, I named it Abert's run, after Colonel Abert, of the United States army, and chief of the Topographical bureau. Higher up on the right bank is the village of Wahmundee Indootah, or Red Eagle. The next stream is Woitseah Watapah, or Rush river, rising far up in the country, and comes in on the left bank after it succeeds Chankeoota Oeanka, or the end of the Bois Franc or Free Wood district, a stream coming in on the left bank. About fifteen miles further we came to a place called Myakah or White rock, on the right bank, an escarpment consisting of about forty feet of granular sandstone surmounted by ten feet of fawn-colored limestone, the same as that at Abert's run. This sandstone is formed of semi-transparent grains, loosely adhering with nodules here and there, where they are cemented by a paste of clear siliceous matter, the whole making a hard, flinty mass, resembling siliceous oolite. At the junction of the limestone with the sandstone, there is a seam of marly mineral matter, containing a great deal of silicate iron, of a bluish green color. I had seen traces of this in the bluffs at Prairie du Chien. Eight or nine miles further on is Traverse des Sioux, an establishment of the American Fur Company. This is a noted crossing place of the Sioux Indians in old times. A short distance from this trading-place, a small stream comes in on the right bank, called Wee-wee, or Moon creek. This stream, before it falls into the St. Peter's, recedes a little, and describes a semi-circle before it approaches the river again, and repeats this several times, so that several small crescents are described by the stream before it joins the river. In the Nacotah tongue wee signifies the sun, and wee-wee, the moon, after which planet the Indians have named the stream, from the half-moon it forms. I was very particular in examining this locality, because it is the place where Major Long abandoned the St. Peter's to perform the rest of the journey by land.

About two miles further on the limestone and sandstone are again in place, and about three more a long bluff, about twenty-five feet high, presents itself on the right bank with the same beds. These are succeeded in about five miles by a rocky bluff on the right bank, called Makassa usa, or White-earth bluff, about seventy yards high. On reach

[25th CoNG. 1st SESS.

ing the top of this bluff a curious spectacle presents itself. The horizon to the east is bounded by a belt of wood about four iniles from the river; from the wood an elevated terrace extends westward about one mile of smooth prairie land, whilst the remaining sunken portion is covered with tens of thousands of boulders of limestone and granite, some of them standing in the most grotesque manner, and separated from each other as the wild buffalo are when grazing; indeed, at a distance, they might very well be taken for them. Some of the boulders weigh, I should think, one hundred tons. To the south is prairie land, at a much lower level, with a lake; whilst on the opposite side of the river nothing can exceed the beauty of the wooded slopes, with a continuous smooth prairie beyond them. These are amongst the interesting proofs of the retreat of the waters in ancient times, and of their power to break up even the beds of the primary rocks. Beyond this point an island is passed about four hundred yards long, the largest yet met with. The current is now very strong for some distance, and from the continuation of bold bluffs, many of them with boulders on their sides, it is evident the river has worked its way through a ridge here. Chaneaska, or Fort river, has received its name from a strong hold which the Nacotahs had on the heights near it, during their wars with the Ha-bah tona, or People of the Falls, the name they give to the Chippewas. About sixteen miles beyond this point, the bluffs on the left bank are about one hundred and fifty feet high; and here, after a very severe struggle with the current, we got the canoe into the mouth of the Makato Watapah, or Blue-earth river, the principal tributary of the Minnay Sotor. This is a bold stream, eighty yards wide at its mouth; and the St. Peter's, whose general course from its sources having hitherto been about northwest, now joined by the Makato, forces its way through the lowest part of the ridge, and gains the Mississippi in a course nearly northeast.

Having reached the Makato, it became my duty to enter it. Expectations had been raised by the publication of Major Long's* expedition, respecting some supposed copper mines which M. Le Sueur was said to have discovered about the beginning of the eighteenth century, not far from its mouth, and which Major Long, in passing up the St. Peter's, had not visited. The following passage,† with others, in the publication in question," gave so much importance to the affair, that it was deemed proper to make an investigation of the locality part of my instructions:

"Charlevoix states that Le Sueur was sent by M. D'Iberville to make an establishment in the Sioux country, and to take possession of a copper mine Le Sueur had there discovered. He ascended the St. Peter's 40 leagues, to la rivière Verte, which comes in on the left. Though only the last of September, the ice prevented him from ascending that river more than a league: he therefore built a fort, and spent the winter at that spot. In April, 1702, he went up the rivière Verte to the mine, which was only three-quarters of a league above his winter establishment. In twenty-two days they got out more than thirty thousand pounds of ore, of which four thousand pounds were selected and sent to France. The mine was at the foot of a mountain ten leagues long, that seemed to be composed of the same substance. After removing a black burnt crust as hard as rock, the copper could be scraped with a knife.' A manuscript in the possession of the American Philosophical Society, written by M. Bénard de la Harpe, is also cited: "It appears from this manuscript that Le Sueur's discoveries of blue earth were made in 1695, but that all further operations were interrupted until 1700. We find in the same manuscript, under the date of the 10th of February, 1702, that Le Sueur arrived at the

"

* Narrative of an Expedition to the sources of St. Peter's river, &c.; 2 vols. 8vo. By William H. Keating. Philadelphia, 1824. + Vol. I, page 316. Keating, vol. 1, p. 319.

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66

mouth of the Mississippi that day with two thousand quintals of blue and green earth." The same manuscript is also said, in giving the details of Le Sueur's progress up the Mississippi, to state: Finally, on the 19th of September, he left the Mississippi, and entered the St. Peter's river, which comes in from the west bank. By the 1st of October he had ascended this river forty-four and a quarter leagues, when he entered the Blue river, the name of which is derived from the blue earth found on its banks. "On the 26th M. Le Sueur went to the mine with three canoes, which he loaded with green and blue earth. It was taken from mountains near which are very abundant mines of copper, of which an assay was made in Paris by M. L'Huiller, in the year 1696."

I had, through my guide, (Milor,) neglected no opportunity to inquire amongst the Nacotahs respecting these mines, but I never could obtain any information, or even a traditional report, of any thing like a copper mine in that region. Many of the chiefs concurred in saying that there were some bluffs a few miles beyond the mouth of the St. Peter's, to which the Indians had at all times resorted to procure a blue earth with which they were accustomed to paint themselves; and one old chief had described the locality with great precision. He was very well acquainted with the whole country between the St. Peter's and the Missouri, and had often crossed the Coteau de Prairie, but he had never heard of or seen any thing like copper. This, however, was not particularly discouraging, as Le Sueur's mineral was described as being a green and blue earth; and it might very well be an oxyde or carbonate in the carboniferous limestone, as it is found in the Wiskonsan Territory. I therefore entered the Macato with some confidence. Its waters were extremely discolored, and I immediately saw they were the cause of the turbid state of those of the St. Peter's. When we had proceeded about a mile, we found a family of Nacotahs, of the Sissiton tribe, encamped on a sand bar, taking care of some venison they had just killed. The locality I was in search of was well known to them, and they gave us very intelligible directions. The current was exceedingly strong, running about two miles an hour, and the stream appeared to furnish about one half the volume of the St. Peter's. About three miles from the entrance of the river there is a

singular conical hill covered with grass on the right bank, which I thought a very probable situation for M. Le Sueur's Fort L'Huillier, and I should have landed to examine it but for my anxiety to reach the blue-earth locality, and on account of the weather, the snow falling as we

passed it, (September 22.) Near six miles from the

We

mouth, a fork of the river came in from the left bank, about forty-five yards wide, on the right bank of which is a ridge of from eighty to one hundred feet wide, very well wooded, and fronting a prairie on the opposite side. found very little current, the main stream having forced it back for some distance, About two miles up this fork, we at length came to a bluff, about one hundred and fifty feet high, on the left bank, containing the blue-earth locality. On climbing it, I found the same horizontal sandstone and siliceous sandstone common to the whole country. Towards the top was a broad seam of bluish clay, intermixed in places with silicate of iron, being a continuution of the deposite I had seen before at Myakab, and valuable only for the savages to paint themselves with. From this bluff I advanced in a westerly direction about two miles, over a part of the country grown up with small poplars, hazels, wild roses, and grass, in the hope of seeing the Coteau de Prairie, and making arrangements to proceed to it from this quarter; but I saw nothing of the kind from any eminence which I could gain; and having in my hand, and reading on the spot, what had been said of M. Le Sueur, his mountains, and his copper mines, I found myself obliged to come to the conclusion that these

discoveries were fables invented to give him influence g the court of France. Before I left the northwest country, and after I had visited the Coteau de Prairie, I found i was distant at least sixty miles from this spot, which leaves only the bluffs of the river to represent the mountains spoken of in the manuscript of La Harpe.

Seeing the state of the country here, and having made up my mind to proceed up the St. Peter's to its source, and strike the Coteau de Prairie there, if the season ad mitted of it, I descended the Makato, which the natives informed ine had eleven forks and was full of rapids, and regained the St. Peter's. The water above the junction was very clear, and had but little current for several miles, being somewhat kept back by the Makato; the stream is about one hundred yards broad, and runs for some distance through low, well-wooded banks, forming a very pleasing country. About twelve miles up the river, the slopes are covered with large boulders, near which the river narrows to about fifty yards, and gradually becomes shallow, it sandy bed being covered with very beautiful unios of va rious species, the beaks of which were not at all decorticsted. Twenty miles from the Makato, the St. Peter's ha made a recent cut-off and abandoned its old bed; not fir from this place a large mass of sandstone is in place in the middle of the river. Minday Maha-tanka, or Great-grose (Swan) lake, lies nearly five miles north of this point Further on, the banks of the river consist of about twenty fect of alluvial sandy loam, containing great quantifies o planorbis, anculotus, and helices, to the bottom, of the same species now found. About twenty-five miles from the Makato some red-earth bluffs occur on the left back, with numerous boulders; from this point the general ap pearance of the soil and country begins to vary and announces a change in the formations, and five miles farther some rocky bluffs come in at the left bank, the lower beds of which are a brick-red color and of a fine grain. On landing and leaving the bank, I found the country covered with beds of red gritstone, of a very hard quality, inclined about fifteen degrees. These rocks are full of potholes, some of them a foot in diameter and eight inche deep, and are as smooth as metal. The carboniferous limestone formation seems to terminate here, and to be stopped by a conglomerate resembling in its mineralogical characters the upper beds of the old red sandstone. The river has in old times passed over these rocks, worn the pot-holes, and made them so glassy smooth. The Warhajoo, called by the voyageurs rivière aux Liards, or Cotton-wood river, comes in from the right bank, at a short distance beyond this point; we turned the canoe into it for awhile, but were obliged to return on account of the shallowness of the water. Our distance by computation from the mouth of the St. Peter's at this place, was two hondred miles, estimated by the windings of the river, and we had more than three hundred yet to accomplish before we could reach the sources of the St. Peter's. There is a village of Sissiton Indians a little west of the Warhajoo. Five miles from this last stream, the St. Peter's winds, in a very curious manner, through rich alluvial bottoms, covered with sugar-maple trees: it goes round a tongue of land, at one place, the distance of one mile and five-sixths which is only twenty yards across at the base. It is called Eepah haska, or Long point, by the Nacotahs. There is another, a little higher up, of a similar kind: the river here is about one hundred and ten yards broad, varying in width, and gliding sometimes on one bank, sometimes ou the other, in a serpentine course, through a valley of rich, black, sandy loam, about one and a half mile wide be tween the bloffs. The zizania is frequently abundant about here. The guide pointed out to me, on the right

*The alluvial banks of the Mississippi at Quincy are in like mac ner filled with these univalves; these deposites being the old beds of streams, like those before-mentioned at Fort Gratiot.

bank, the place where, in 1811, he had buried his employer, a trader of the name of Cameron, who, like many others of his vocation, go on struggling for wealth, and die unnoticed in the woods. About forty miles from the Warhajoo, I for the first time came upon a mass of granite in place, the river narrowing to about fifty yards. The Voyageurs call this Petit Rocher, Further on there are large granite rocks in the river. Mr Moore's trading house is in this vicinity, on the right bank. The granite henceforward is of constant occurrence, nor was any other kind of rock seen in place during my further progress to the northwest. From hence to a stream coming in from the left bank, called by the Nacotalis Weetah-chantaheahantah, or i-land of dead wood that fails in the lake, and by the traders Beaver river, is a succession of rapids, masses of granite, and shallow water, often not more than one foot deep on the sand. Beyond this point, on the right bank, are huge outliers of granite for many miles on the prairie bottoms. The Chanshyapay, or Red wood river, comes in a little further on, taking its name from a tree painted red by the savages. The St. Peter's is much obstructed by rocks and rapids before reaching this stream, but is wide and shallow after passing it. The voyageurs call it forty leagues, or one hundred and twenty miles, from the Warhajoo to Chanshyapay. Twelve miles further to the west, an outlier of granite, of great dimensions, stands alone on the right bank; and about eight miles further, there is a fine stretch of granite rocks, on the right bank, about fifty feet high and one hundred and fifty yards long. The interrupted state of these masses, and the numerous boulders found east of this formation, show the nature of the force required to tear up these unstratified masses from the valley, and transport them to so great a distance. The sandy bed of the river about here was covered with living unios. At one point, called by the Nacotahs Hahhah, or the Cascade, the granite stretched almost across the river, and made a fall sufficient to oblige us to unlade the canoe. The fall here throws an eddy on the right bank, which has worn out a basin about fifty yards by forty, and a broad ledge of granite is formed, about one hundred yards long and twenty wide, sloping to the southeast. The bed of the river is thus restricted to a passage of about thirty-five yards wide. South of this are numerous rugged granite hills. In this granitic country the bends of the river become short, the water being turned away by the rocks. Three or four miles beyond this point the river is almost choked up with masses of granite, at a place called Patterson's rapids, from a trader of that name who once wintered there. There is, in fact, no rapid at all; the progress, however, becomes difficult, and much care is required in getting a birch-bark canoe through this part of the river. I had come about one thousand miles in mine, and it had hitherto required very little repairs. An accident would have been a serious embarrassment, as there is no birch in that part of the country, and the Nacotahs do not, like the Chippeways, use canoes made of its bark.

Beyond Patterson's rapids the prairie-grounds come down to the banks of the river without a tree. There may be said to be two kinds of prairie: the alluvial bottom, a rich black soil, with wild grass from four to six feet high, sometimes a mile in breadth, and thrown up into innumerable small hillocks by the moles of the country; and then the upland prairie, forming the common table-land of the region, less rich than the other, but good soil, generally with low coarse grass, and the horizon uninterrupted by a tree. On the upland prairies here, I began to find calcareous boulders, formed of flat lamine of salmon-colored limestones, with impressions of producta and spirifers, from which I concluded myself to be upon the southern edge of the granite coming in from the north, and that I might probably come upon the limestone again, if I should get far enough to the west.

[25th CoNG. 1st SESS.

The river now narrowed again to about seventy yards, and became so shallow that we were in constant expectation of being obliged to stop, notwithstanding I had made caches of our heaviest articles, by burying them in the ground. The daily fall of the water, too, created appro. hensions as to the manner in which we should be able to accomplish our return. After walking through the brakes for some time, I came to a small stream on the left bank, called Chahtahnboah, or Sparrowhawk river, which the voyageurs, for some idle reason, have named Ean de Vie. Nearly opposite to this the Pahjeetah Zeezeehah, or Yel low Medicine river, joins the St. Peter's, its mouth almost choked up with wild rice. The main river now becomes about eighty yards wide again, the banks low, with great quantities of zizania; the slopes of the upland prairie on the right bank are well wooded; and a very good channel, from five to eight feet deep. At the termination of this channel there is another hahhah, or fall, with a rapid about one hundred yards long, through which the canoe had to be dragged by the men up to their waists in water. From here to the Grand Portage there is a succession of rapids. At this point the river makes a detour of three miles, the whole distance being one continued rapid, through which the canoe had to be dragged. The portage is one mile and three-quarters across, by land, and it was here the singularly-laminated rock occurred, which is spoken of at page 27, and which resembles granite in every particular except its stratification. The strike or direction of these masses is N. E. by E. and S. W. by W., dipping S. E., and I of course crossed their whole breadth at right angles. After passing the portage and re-embarking, four other rapids occur, three of them near to each other, and the fourth about a mile distant. The river soon reassumes its ancient breadth of one hundred yards, and winds through an extensive meadow edged with zizania. The otters were swimming about in numbers among the wild rice, and the water was almost covered with wild ducks and teal. muskrats bad already begun to build their tall conical houses in the water, formed of the straw of the zizania. Beyond this we passed a broad coulée, made by an immense herd of buffaloes, fifteen to twenty thousand in number, which had crossed the river here. The chaunel now becomes contracted and rocky again, a stream called Mea-wakon (by the traders Chippeway river) comes in from the left, about fifty feet wide at its mouth, soon after which the St. Peter's narrows to thirty-five yards. Here the prairies were on fire, and further on were burnt quite black down to the water's edge. The valley still continues about two miles broad, and the bends of the river are so numerous that I could see it in six different places from the slope of the upland prairie. These bends would be sometimes fifteen hundred yards round, and only sixty at the base. The river at length became very narrow, and so blocked up with fallen trees, that we were often delayed by being obliged to stop and cut our way through. The last stream which fails into the St. Peter's south of Lac qui parle, and which comes from the right bank, is called Chan-ilkpah-watapali, or the last wooded river. At Lac qui parle there is a stockaded trading-house of the American Fur Company, the residence of Reinville, one of the partners, an intelligent man, possessing a great deal of influence with the Nacotah tribes, having been brought up amongst them. The post is about a mile east of the lake, and is the rendezvous of great numbers of the natives. The voyageurs estimate the distance from the Warhajoo to the lake at eighty leagues, and as this estimate is the result of great experience, it is probably more accurate than any one that can be made by a traveller, whose progress is necessarily so irregularly conducted during a single expedition. Mr. Reinville informed me that the lake takes its name from a tradition that it had once spoken to a Nacotah chief when crossing it. The valley here is of the usual breadth, bounded by the upland

The

The Coteau de Prairie, about which very little has been known, is a very broad ridge of land dividing the waters tributary to the Missouri from those which discharge themselves into the St. Peter's, and into Red river of Lake Winnepeg. Its general direction is about N. N. W. and S. S. E., though in places it appears to be irregular. To the south it comes down to the sources of the Mekato, whilst to the north it terminates for a while near the sources of the Psee, when a flat country comes in, intersected by the Shyan and Goose rivers. Lac du Diable* is in this area, with Turtle river. Here the Coteau rises again to the north, but is called the Pembina hills by the traders; these extend beyond the Assinaboin river, and die away about Flat lake, near seventy miles from Lake Winnepeg.† East of the Pembina hills there are salt-springs, and from the somewhat vague accounts I received from the Indians, there is coal in their vicinity. A very respectable trader informed me he had once picked up some bituminous coal on the shore of Lake Travers.

Between Lake Travers and the Missouri there are four of these ridges: Coteau de Prairie, on the surface of which there is nothing to be seen but small wooded lakes, with immense quantities of muskrats, and which extends four days' easy march to a valley through which a fine stream called Chaneaska or White-wood river flows. This stream, which the voyageurs have named rivière au Jacques, rises in the flat area where Lac du Diable is; it is well wooded, and joins the Missouri about the forty-third degree. The next parallel ridge is about one day's march to rivière aux Ormes; then another small ridge occurs, with a stream separating it from Minnay Shoshoh-chhray, "high hill of the muddy river," which the voyageurs going up the Missouri have called Coteau de Missouri, having it on the right. The distance from Lake Travers to the Missouri, across this part of the country, is equal to seven days' march, and the Mandan village, in 47° 30′, can be reached in the same time.

Finding the whole country buried up in sand and clay, no rock in place of any kind, and constantly admonished by the approach of the winter, I determined to return by the south side of Minday Eatatenka, or Big-stone lake. Descending the Coteau, I had a weary march across the burnt prairies, and with nothing to attract attention but the extreme beauty of the mirage and the distant tops of a few trees, I reached Eatatenka, an extremely beautiful piece of water. Where I struck the lake it was impossible to get to the water's edge, on account of the great breadth of the swampy ground, covered with rushes eight feet high. From the high land there was a fine view of the lake, curving for a great distance, with occasional bluffs two hundred feet high. Near its banks the land is of the finest quality, but is sometimes intersected by coulées. I went down one of them towards the lake, and found it terminate in about one hundred and fifty acres of very rich land, forming a singu. Iar wilderness of trees and briers, with a stream of fine water flowing through it. The remains of a large Indian village were there, and on rising the east bank of the coulée there was a mound which overlooked the country. Towards the southeast termination there is a fine low dry prairie, and a good beach, which enabled me to get some unios and anodontas. Below this are some large islands, with Indian villages. The lake, which is generally very

The Nacotahs call this Lake Minday Wakon, or Great Spirit's lake; but as they attach a supernatural feeling to many things they do not comprehend, and apply the name of Wakon even to a powerful magnet, the Canadian voyageurs often mistake the Indians, and in this instance have given to this lake the now popular name of the Devil's lake.

I have thought it might be useful to give geographical notices of some localities of this unfrequented region: those which I did not visit myself are from good authority.

It is extremely probable that this is the origin of the word Missouri. The first time I heard a Nacotah pronounce Minney Shoshoh-chhray, slurred rapidly together, as is their way, it produced just such a sound as an illiterate voyageur would convey by Mishouray.

VOL. XIV.--A 41

[25th CoNG. 1st SESS.

well wooded, terminates in a low marshy piece of ground, and was here covered with such great quantities of wild fowl, that they made a noise like thunder when they arose. Its extreme length is about thirty-six miles, and it averages about one mile and three quarters in width; the north end for a short distance runs north and south, the central part bears nearly east, and at the other end it inclines to the southeast. From here the distance to Lac qui Parle is about thirty miles by the St. Peter's, which is only navigable when the waters are high; the stream was very small when I crossed it, and ran through low meadows of tall wide grass, which fill this continuation of the valley between Lac qui Parle and Eatatenka. Having crossed the valley here, I found myself suddenly amongst immense masses of granite in place, isolated from each other, and occupying several hundred acres. Some of these masses are twenty-five feet high, they extend six or eight miles down the valley, and give its name of Eatatenka, or Great Rocks, to the lake. On the south side of this valley, not far from the lake, a stream comes in called Zoozoo Watapah, or Sandstone river; it rises high up in the prairie, and is a large stream at some seasons. Lower down another stream comes in on the same side, called Chhray Wakon; this also rises far in the Coteau, and takes its name from a lofty mound near which it passes, named Chhray Wakon, from a miraculous tradition which the Indians have preserved. As they esteem all medicine to be miraculous, the voyageurs frequently translate the word wakon, which generally means something supernatural, by "medicine." Thus the French have called this stream rivière de la Montagne Medicine. Advancing to the southcast I found the prairies on fire in every direction, and having regained the canoe, succeeded, with a great deal of exertion, in descending the St. Peter's and in reaching Fort Snelling, which place I left with two feet of snow on the ground, and exceedingly severe weather.

Being desirous of examining the country from Prairie du Chien to the mouth of the Missouri, more in detail than I should have been able to do if I had taken my passage in the steamboat, I continued on to Dubuque's and the town of Galena in my canoe. Sulphuret of lead is found in various places between Prairie du Chien and Cassville, a new settlement on the left bank of the Mississippi. At Dubuque's lead mines the limestone appears identically the same with the galeniferous beds of Missouri. The fossils also are the characteristic fossils of the carboniferous limestone. The galena itself, however, differs in appearance from that which constitutes the solid and brilliant bands of sulphuret in the Missouri mines. There, although it has an evident tendency to separate into cubes, the lines of cleavage are generally obliterated, whilst here the sulphuret consists of aggregates of perfect cubes, of a very dull and rubly appearance, and lying in loose masses in cavities of the limestone beds, mixed up with ochreous earth. I found this to be the universal state of the metallic beds also on the left bank of the Mississippi. In Missouri the veins of galena are exceedingly bright, and are encased in wet, waxy, red, argillaceous matter, whilst in the galeniferous region of this part of the country, some electric action seems to have dried up the argillaceous matter, and to have separated the metal into cubes, and broken it up into masses. In the neighborhood of the town of Galena, I perceived the veins went very much into those pockets common to metallic countries;† here they appear to prevail through extensive areas of country; shafts are sunk to great depths through the dry red earth, and the masses of cubical sulphuret are always found in the condition I have described. I think it very probable that the lead formation of this part of the United States extends to the north far beyond the places where excavations are now carried on, but the activity, perseverance, and great re