Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/85

77 and descend in an oblique direction, at an angle of about 45 degrees. They are in low, flat land, and in a very unhealthy situation; nor can the miners go down very deep before they will be interrupted by water. The mineral is very different in its appearance from any other that has been found in this part of the country. It is of a fine, steel grain, and contains a considerable quantity of silver. In smelting of it, a very different process is necessary from that which the French people have employed, in the other mines. The want of skilful workmen, and differently constructed furnaces, has greatly retarded the working of this mineral. The method these people have pursued, has been to give the ore repeated heatings, by laying, it on piles of logs, before it is prepared for smelting, by which great loss is sustained. They rarely get more than thirty or thirty-five per cent.

There is also found, at this mine, a different kind of ore in beds. It is called, by the miners, gravel mineral, being found intermixed with the soil, in small particles, from the size of a pin's head to that of a hickory nut. After being washed, it is put into a furnace, and smelted into slag, and then placed in another furnace, not unlike a miller's hopper, where a partial fluxion is produced. It is said this kind of ore, in the hands of experienced workmen, with a proper furnace, would yield large profits.