But, although we have no data to form an authenticated schedule of the annual product of the mines for any required number of years, there is something to be obtained by collecting and comparing facts, detached and scanty as they are. Something also is to be acquired by consulting the books which have been kept of late years in the warehouses on the Mississippi, where the lead is sent for exportation, and some information is also to be gleaned from various other sources. It is from information thus obtained that I proceed to an enumeration of the products of the different mines, and the number of persons to whom they furnish employment and support, satisfied, at the same time, that although the information may not be all that could be desired, yet it is all which, without the most extraordinary exertions, could be obtained.
The amount of crude ore delivered at the furnaces of Mine Shibboleth, during one of its most productive years (1811), was something rising of 5,000,000 of pounds. The ore of this mine is estimated to yield, in the large way, from 60 to 70 per cent., reckoned at 62-½, which is probably a fair average. The product of the mine in 1811 was 3,125,000 pounds. Shibboleth is, however, one of the richest mines in the Territory, and this is the product of one of those years in which it was most profitably worked. It was then a new discovery, vast bodies of ore were found near the surface, and the number of miners drawn together by the fame of its riches was uncommonly great. It has since declined, although the ore is still constantly found; and I am informed by Colonel Smith, the present proprietor, that the product this year (1819) will be about one million of pounds.
The number of persons employed in digging lead at Mine à Burton has been constantly lessening for the last four or five years; and this celebrated mine, which has been worked without interruption for more than forty years, and is stated to have yielded as high as three millions per annum, is manifestly in a state of decline. During the last summer (1818), the greater part of which I resided at that place, there were not more than thirty miners employed; and the total product of the different pits, shafts, and diggings, composing this mine, did not exceed half a million of pounds. Of this quantity, Messrs. Samuel Perry & Co. were the manufacturers of about 300,000 lbs. They contemplate realizing an increased quantity during the present year. John Rice Jones, Esq., is also engaged in penetrating the rock in search of ore, with the most flattering prospects, and is determined, as he informs me, to sink through the upper stratum of limestone, and ascertain the character of the succeeding formations. It is highly probable, reasoning from geognostic relations, that the lower formations will prove metalliferous, yielding both lead and copper; a discovery which would form a new era in the history of those mines. The present mode of promiscuous digging on the surface would then be abandoned, and people made to see and to realize the advantages of the only system of mining which can be permanently, uniformly, and successfully pursued, viz., by penetrating into the bowels of the earth.
Several other persons of intelligence and capital are also engaged in mining at this place, and it is probable that the total amount of lead manufactured at this mine during the year 1819 will fall little short of one million of pounds.
It is not to be inferred, however, that because the number of miners at Potosi has decreased, the mines are exhausted. On the contrary, there is reason to conclude, as already mentioned, that the principal bodies of ore have not yet been discovered, and that it is destined to become the seat of the most extensive and important mining operations. The ore heretofore raised at these mines has been chiefly found in the stratum of earth which forms the surface of that country, and is bottomed on the limestone. This stratum consists of a stiff red clay, passing in some places into marl, and in others partaking more of the silicious character forming a loam, and imbedding the ores of lead, accompanied by the various mineralogical species before mentioned. These minerals are often of a very attractive character for cabinets.
The depth of this soil is sometimes thirty feet; and in this the diggings have been chiefly done, requiring no other machinery than is used in well-digging; and the stratum of rock has generally put a stop to the progress of the miner, although veins of ore penetrating it have often invited him in the pursuit. But it requires different tools, machinery, and works, for mining in rock; the process is also more tedious and expensive, and is considered especially so by those who have been accustomed from their youth to find bodies of ore by a few days' digging in the earth, and who, if they should work a fortnight at one place, and not fall upon a bed of ore, would go away quite disheartened. The principal search has therefore been made in the sub-stratum of clay, where large bodies of ore are sometimes found by a day's, and sometimes by an hour's work. Hence, in the neighborhood of Potosi, the ground has been pretty well explored, and more search and labor is required to find it than in other and more distant places, where new mines continue annually to be discovered. But, with the exception of Austin's shaft, who sunk eighty feet, and the mines opened by Jones, the rock at this mine remains unpenetrated. Austin found large quantities of ore filling crevices in the rock, and the appearances were flattering when the last work was done. In sinking down, a change in the rock was experienced, passing from compact solid gray limestone, by several gradations, into a loose granulated limestone, very friable, and easily reduced to grains. This stone was in some instances completely disintegrated, forming a calcareous sand; and the most compact bodies of it, on a few weeks' exposure at the mouth of the shaft, fall into grains. These grains are, however, wholly calcareous, and readily soluble in nitric and muriatic acids. The portion which I submitted to experiment was taken up completely, nor was any sediment deposited by many months' standing. On going deeper, the rock again graduated into a compact limestone, very hard, and of a bluish-gray color, in which were frequently found small cavities studded over with minute pyramids of limpid quartz. These variations in the structure of the earth and rock in that place, are still observable by the stones, spars, and other minerals, lying around the mouths of the mines; and, upon the whole, the appearances are such as to justify a conclusion that the lower strata of rocks at Potosi, and the numerous mines in its vicinity, are of a highly metalliferous character, and such as to warrant the expenditures incident to a search.
From a statement lately drawn up, and certified by the proprietors of warehouses at Herculaneum, it appears that the total quantity of pig and bar lead, and shot, exported from that place, from January 1, 1817, to June 1, 1818, a period of eighteen months, was 3,194,249 pounds. Herculaneum may be considered the depôt for the lead of Mine Shibboleth, Richwoods, Bellefontaine, a portion of the lead of Mine à Burton and Potosi, and a few other mines in that neighbourhood. Perhaps nearly or quite half of the whole quantity of lead yearly smelted at the Missouri mines, is shipped from this place. Here then is an average product of 2,395,667 pounds per annum, for the years 1817 and 1818, from those mines which send their lead to Herculaneum.
Assuming the ground that these mines produce only half of what is annually made at the whole number of mines, which I conclude may be a true estimate, we shall arrive at the conclusion, that the annual product of the Missouri mines for those years was four millions, seven hundred and ninety-one thousand, three hundred and thirty-four pounds. This, estimated at the present price of four cents per pound, gives us a sum of one hundred and ninety-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-three dollars. This is the produce of one year; and supposing the mines to have produced the same average quantity during every year since they have been in possession of the United States, we have a sum of three millions, sixty-six thousand, four hundred and forty-eight dollars; which is more than the original cost of Louisiana, as purchased from France during the administration of President Jefferson. Let those who have any doubts of the value of our mines, reflect upon this, and consider that it was the product of a year when the mines were in a manifest state of decline, and wrought wholly by individuals, with a foreign competition to oppose, and without the benefits resulting from a systematic organization of the mining interest.
Nearly all the lead smelted at the Missouri mines is transported in carts and wagons from the interior to St. Genevieve and Herculaneum. As it must necessarily be deposited for storage at those places, it was naturally expected that authentic accounts of the lead manufactured in the Territory for many years, might be obtained on application. But in this, I experienced some degree of disappointment. At St. Genevieve, although a warehouse has been kept at the landing for many years, the lead sent to town has not all been stored. From the earliest time, and before the establishment of a warehouse by Mr. Janies, the French inhabitants of St. Genevieve had all been more or less engaged in the storage, purchase, and traffic of lead. Every dwelling-house thus became a storehouse for lead, and, in these cases, no regular accounts were kept of the quantities received or delivered. The same practice has, in some measure, continued since, so that it is impossible to obtain, with any precision, the amount shipped from this place. At Herculaneum, a warehouse has been kept since the year 1816; and on application to Mr. Elias Bates, the proprietor, he was so obliging as to allow me permission to peruse his book of receipts, for the purpose of making extracts. The following details embrace the receipts of lead at that place for a period of two years and eleven months, ending May 18, 1819.