Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology21894univers).pdf/221

The first geological survey of Missouri, having for its field of operations the whole state, exclusively, was provided for by an act of legislature just fifty-one years ago. A period of partial surveys by state and national governments had immediately preceded this, and a period of exploration and travel, and of primitive mining, was of still earlier date.

The explorations of Joliet, of La Salle, and of Hennepin, in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, had transformed the Mississippi valley from terra incognita to a promising field for adventure or profit, and, with the establishing of a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi by Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1699, excursions up the river became frequent. In Le Sueur's expedition, in 1700, the existence of Missouri lead ores became known. This served, a few years later, as one of the incentives leading to the settling of the country by the Company of the West under the Crozat patent. From this time to the end of the eighteenth century the lead deposits were almost continuously worked, sometimes on a large scale, but no record of any careful investigation has come down to us from these early days.

With the beginning of the present century and the transfer of the territory to the United States, an era of somewhat closer observation seems to have been inaugurated. Among the earliest papers touching the geology of Missouri is Austin's "Descriptions of the Lead Mines in Upper Louisiana," written in 1804, covering a few pages of the American State Papers.^[1] This is almost entirely descriptive of the lead mines of southeastern Missouri, and treats principally of their superficial features and conditions of development. During the next thirty years, a