rsions, while stopping at a planter's who owned a mill, I saw
several large masses of sienite, lying on the ground; and on inquiry
where this material could come from, in the midst of a limestone
country, was informed that it was brought from the waters of the St.
Francis, to serve the purpose of millstones. This furnished the hint for
a visit to that stream, which resulted in the discovery of the primitive
tract, embracing the sources of the St. Francis and Big Rivers.

I found rising of forty principal mines scattered over a district of
some twenty miles, running parallel to, and about thirty miles west of,
the banks of the Mississippi. I spent about three months in these
examinations, and as auxiliary means thereto, built a chemical furnace,
for assays, in Mr. Austin's old smelting-house, and collected specimens
of the various minerals of the country. Some of my excursions were made
on foot, some on horseback, and some in a single wagon. I unwittingly
killed a horse in these trips, in swimming a river, when the animal was
over-heated; at least he was found dead next morning in the stable.

In the month of October I resolved to push my examinations west beyond
the line of settlement, and to extend them into the Ozark Mountains. By
this term is meant a wide range of hill country running from the head of
the Merrimack southerly through Missouri and Arkansas. In this
enterprise several persons agreed to unite. I went to St. Louis, and
interested a brother of my friend Pettibone in the plan. I found my old
fellow-voyager, Brigham, on the American bottom in Illinois, where he
had cultivated some large fields of corn, and where he had contracted
fever and ague. He agreed, however, to go, and reached the point of
rendezvous, at Potosi; but he had been so enfeebled as to be obliged to
return from that point. The brother of Pettibone arrived. He had no
tastes for natural history, but it was a season of leisure, and he was
prone for the adventure. But the experienced woodsmen who had agreed to
go, and who had talked largely of encountering bears and Osage Indians,
and slaughtering buffalo, one by one gave out. I was resolved myself to
proceed, whoever might flinch. I had purchased a horse, constructed a
pack saddle with my own hands, and made every preparation that was
deemed necessary. On the 6th of November I set out. Mr. Ficklin, my good
host, accompanied me to the outskirts of the settlement. He was an old
woodsman, and gav