p. 106

115

it diverges suddenly to the west and crosses that line near the Peckatonica. It embraces about sixty two townships constituting by far the larger proportion of the Lead district of the upper Mississippi; as the extent of country from which this mineral is obtained in Illinois is only ten townships, and in Iowa Territory only eight. The surface rock in this district being limestone and the face of the country not being mountaineous, as is usually the case in mining countries, we find that the land about our lead mines are as valuable for agricultural purposes as almost any other in the west, thus affording this district advantages not to be found in combination elsewhere; for except in this case, the country which is valuable for its mines is good for nothing in the eyes of an agriculturalist. The theoretical geologist [will not?-illegible] find a hard problem to solve in his endeavor to account for the almost total absence of those boulders of primitive rock in the mineral district, which are so abundant elsewhere in the Territory.

Sill. 43 p-35