Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw

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Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw
From Potosi, or Mine a Burton, in Missouri Territory, in a South-West Direction, toward the Rocky Mountains.
Performed in the Years 1818 and 1819.
London: Richard Phillips and Company, 1821
by Henry R. Schoolcraft

Potosi, Thursday, 5th Nov. 1818
I begin my tour where other travellers have ended theirs, on the confines of the wilderness, and at the last village of white inhabitants, between the Mississippi river and the Pacific Ocean. I have passed down the valley of the Ohio, and across the state of Illinois, in silence! I am now at the mines of Missouri, at the village of Mine ? Burton, (now called Potosi,) and surrounded by its mineral hills and smoking furnaces. Potosi is the seat of justice for Washington county, Missouri territory, and is situated forty miles west of St Genevieve, and about sixty south-west of St. Louis, the capital. It occupies a delightful valley, of small extent, through which a stream of the purest water meanders, dividing the village into two portions of nearly equal extent. This valley is bordered by hills of primitive limestone, rising in some places in rugged peaks; in others, covered with trees, and grouped and interspersed with cultivated farms, in such a manner as to give the village a pleasing and picturesque appearance. It contains seventy buildings, exclusive of a court-house, a jail, an academy, a post-office, one saw, and two grist mills, and a number of temporary buildings necessary in the smelting of lead. In its vicinity is found a considerable tract of very fertile land, and a lively interest is manifested to the pursuits of agriculture; but the trade of Potosi is chiefly in lead, which is, in a great degree, the medium of exchange, as furs and peltries formerly were in certain parts of the Atlantic states. Very great quantities of lead are annually made at this place, and waggoned across the country to the banks of the Mississippi, a distance of forty miles, for shipment. It is estimated that, from the year 1798 to 1816, 9,360,000 pounds of lead were smelted here. There are about forty mines in this vicinity. The price of lead is 4 per cwt. in the pig.ê The ore worked is galena, or sulphuret of lead, which is found in abundance, and smelts very easily, yielding from sixty to seventy per cent of metallic lead in the large way. It is found in alluvial soil, along with sulphate of barytes, radiated quartz, and pyrites, and also in veins in primitive limestone.
Friday, Nov. 6th
Having completed the necessary preparations, I left Potosi at three o'clock, P.M., accompanied by Mr. Levi Pettibone, being both armed with guns, and clothed and equipped in the manner of the hunter, and leading a pack-horse, who carried our baggage, consisting of skins to cover us at night, some provisions, an axe, a few cooking utensils, etc. On walking out of the village of Potosi, on the south-west, we immediately commenced ascending a series of hills, which are the seat of the principal mines, winding along among pits, heaps of gravel, and spars, and other rubbish constantly accumulating at the mines, where scarcely ground enough has been left undisturbed for the safe passage of the traveller, who is constantly kept in peril by unseen excavations, and falling-in pits. The surface of the mine-hills is, in fact, completely perforated in all directions, although most of the pits have not been continued more than twenty or thirty feet below the surface, where the rock has opposed a barrier to the further progress of the miner. On reaching the summit of these hills, we turned to survey the beautiful prospect behind us, the valley of Potosi, with its village and stream, the cultivated fields on its borders, the calcareous hills crowned with oaks beyond, with the distant furnaces smoking through the trees, and the wide-spread ruins at our feet. A deep blue sky hung above us; the atmosphere was clear and pure, with a gentle breeze from the south-west, which, passing through the dried leaves of the trees, scattered them over the valley we had left, and murmured a pensive farewell. We turned to pursue our way with such feelings as many travellers have experienced on turning their backs upon the comforts and endearments of life, to encounter fatigue, hard fare, and danger. On travelling three miles from this spot, we arrived at a deserted Indian cabin on the banks of a small stream called Bates' Creek, where we determined to encamp for the night.
Saturday, Nov. 7thêêêêêêêêê
As we are unacquainted with the hunter's art of travelling in the woods, we shall necessarily encounter some difficulties from our want of experience, which a hunter himself would escape. We find it necessary to gain a knowledge of things, of which