CHAPTER X.
DEPART FROM THE CAVE—CHARACTER OF THE HUNTERS WHO GUIDED THE AUTHOR—INCIDENTS OF THE ROUTE—A BEAUTIFUL AND FERTILE COUNTRY, ABOUNDING IN GAME—REACH THE EXTREME NORTH-WESTERN SOURCE OF WHITE RIVER—DISCOVERIES OF LEAD-ORE IN A PART OF ITS BED—ENCAMP AND INVESTIGATE ITS MINERALOGY—CHARACTER, VALUE, AND HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY—PROBABILITY OF ITS HAVING BEEN TRAVERSED BY DE SOTO IN 1541.
It was the last day of the year 1818, when we reached the cave of Winoca, as described in the preceding chapter, on the Ozark summit. An inspection of the country had shown the fact that the mineral developments of its underlying rocks were of a valuable character, while the surface assumed the most pleasing aspect, and the soil, wherever examined, appeared to be of the very richest quality. The bold, rough hunters, who accompanied me, thought of the country only as an attractive game country, which it was a great pity, they said, that the Indians alone should occupy; and they had very little curiosity about anything that did not minister to their immediate wants. They had lived for so long a time by the rifle, that they had a philosophy of the rifle. It was the ready arbiter between themselves, and the animal creation, and the Indians, and even other hunters. Neither the striking agricultural or mineral resources of the country, arrested much attention on their part. And as soon as I was ready to relinquish my examinations at the cave and proceed, they were ready to resume their horses and lead forward. Unfortunately, it was now severely cold, and everything in the heavens prognosticated its increasing severity.
On leaving the Valley of the Cave, and ascending the hills that environed it, we passed over a gently sloping surface of hill and vale, partly covered with forest trees, and partly in prairies. I have seldom seen a more beautiful prospect. The various species of oaks and hickories had strewed the woods with their fruits, on which the bear and wild turkey revelled, while the red deer was scarcely ever out of sight. Long before the hour of encampment had arrived, the hunters had secured the means of our making a sumptuous evening meal on wild viands; and when, at an early hour, we pitched our camp on the borders of a small brook, Holt, who was ever ready with the rifle, added a fat brant from this brook to our stores. We had not travelled more than twelve miles, but we had a sharp wind to face, the day being severe; and nothing was so agreeable, when we halted, as the fire, around which we enjoyed ourselves, as we each displayed our skill in forest cookery. There was cutting, and carving, and roasting, in the true prairie style. We then prepared our couches and night-fires, and slept. At the earliest peep of light, we were again in motion.
The 1st of January, 1819, opened with a degree of cold unusual in these regions. Their elevation is, indeed, considerable; but the wind swept with a cutting force across the open prairies. We were now on the principal north-western source of White river, the channel of which we forded in the distance of two miles. The western banks presented a naked prairie, covered with dry grass and autumnal weeds, with here and there a tree. We pushed on towards the north-east. The prairie-hen, notwithstanding the cold, rose up in flocks before us, as we intruded upon their low-couched positions in the grass. Of these, Holt, whose hunting propensities no cold could restrain, obtained a specimen; he also fired at and killed a wild goose from the channel of the river. On passing about four miles up the western banks of the stream, we observed a lead of lead-ore, glittering through the water in the bed of the river, and determined to encamp at this spot, for the purpose of investigating the mineral appearances. The weather was piercingly cold. We found some old Indian camps near at hand, and procured from them pieces of bark to sheath a few poles and stakes, hastily put up, to form a shelter from the wind. A fire was soon kindled, and, while we cooked and partook of a forest breakfast, we recounted the incidents of the morning, not omitting the untoward state of the weather. When the labor of building the shanty was completed, I hastened to explore the geological indications of the vicinity.
The ore which had attracted our notice in the bed of the stream, existed in lumps, which presented bright surfaces where the force of the current had impelled its loose stony materials over them. It was a pure sulphuret of lead, breaking in cubical lines. I also observed some pieces of hornblende. It was not easy to determine the original width of the bed of ore. Its course is across the stream, into the banks of red marly clay on which we had encamped. Its geological position is in every respect similar to the metalliferous deposits at Potosi, except that there were no spars, calcareous or barytic, in sight. I gathered, in a few minutes, a sufficient number of specimens of the ore for examination, and employed myself in erecting, on the banks of the river, a small furnace, of the kind called "log-furnace" in Missouri, to test its fusibility. In the mean time, my New England companion took a survey of the surrounding country, which he pronounced one of the most fertile, and admirably adapted to every purpose of agriculture. Much of the land consists of prairie, into which the plough can be immediately put. The forests and groves, which are interspersed with a park-like beauty through these prairies, consist of various species of oaks, maple, white and black walnut, elm, mulberry, hackberry, and sycamore.
Holt and Fisher scanned the country for game, and returned to camp with six turkeys and a wolf. Their fear of the Osages had been only apparently subdued. They had been constantly on the look-out for signs of Indian enemies, and had their minds always filled with notions of hovering Osages and Pawnees. The day was wintry, and the weather variable. It commenced snowing at daylight, and continued till about eight o'clock, A. M. It then became clear, and remained so, with occasional flickerings, until two o'clock, when a fixed snowstorm sat in, and drove me from my little unfinished furnace, bringing in the hunters also from the prairies, and confining us strictly to our camp. This storm continued, without mitigation, nearly all night.
Jan. 3d. The snow ceased before sunrise, leaving the country wrapped in a white mantle. The morning was cold; the river began to freeze about nine o'clock, and continued till it was closed. The weather afforded an opportunity for continuing the explorations and examinations commenced yesterday. I found that the red clay afforded a good material for laying the stones of my lead-furnace, and continued working at it for a part of the day. The hunters came in with the carcases of two deer, and the skin of a black wolf. Except in its color, I could not distinguish any permanent characteristics in the latter differing from the large grey wolf, or coyote. Its claws, snout, and ears, were the same—its tail, perhaps, a little more bushy. The size of this animal, judging from the skin, must have been double that of the little prairie-wolf, or myeengun of the Indians of the North.
I found the bed of the stream, where it permitted examination, to be non-crystalline limestone, in horizontal beds, corresponding to the formation observed in the cave of Winoca. Its mineral constituents were much the same. The country is one that must be valuable hereafter for its fertility and resources. The prairies which extend west of the river are the most extensive, rich, and beautiful, of any which I have yet seen west of the Mississippi. They are covered with a most vigorous growth of grass. The deer and elk abound in this quarter, and the buffalo is yet occasionally seen. The soil in the river valley is a rich black alluvion. The trees are often of an immense height, denoting strength of soil. It will probably be found adapted to corn, flax, hemp, wheat, oats, and potatoes; while its mining resources must come in as one of the elements of its future prosperity.