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.