e Hon. R. M. Johnson, obtained a lease of the United States
government, and made arrangements to prosecute the business of smelting,
with considerable force, which he did the following season. This
attracted the attention of enterprising men in Illinois, Missouri, and
other States. Some went on in 1826, more followed in 1827, and in 1828
the country was almost literally filled with miners, smelters,
merchants, speculators, gamblers, and every description of character.
Intelligence, enterprise, and virtue, were thrown in the midst of
dissipation, gaming, and every species of vice. Such was the crowd of
adventurers in 1829, to this hitherto almost unknown and desolate
region, that the lead business was greatly overdone, and the market for
awhile nearly destroyed. Fortunes were made almost upon a turn of the
spade, and lost with equal facility. The business has revived and is
profitable. Exhaustless quantities of mineral exist here, over a tract
of country two hundred miles in extent.

The following table shows the amount of lead made annually at these
diggings, from 1821, to Sept, 30, 1835:

Lbs. of lead made from 1821, to Sept. 1823, 335,130
do. for the year ending Sept. 30, 1824, 175,220
do. do. do. 1825, 664,530
do. do. do. 1826, 958,842
do. do. do. 1827, 5,182,180
do. do. do. 1828, 11,105,810
do. do. do. 1829, 13,344,150
do. do. do. 1830, 8,323,998
do. do. do. 1831, 6,381,900
do. do. do. 1832, 4,281,876
do. do. do. 1833, 7,941,792
do. do. do. 1834, 7,971,579
do. do. do. 1835, 3,754,290
----------
Total, 70,420,357

The rent accruing to government for the same period, is a fraction short
of six millions of pounds. The government formerly received 10 per cent.
in lead for rent. Now it is 6 per cent.

A part of the mineral land in the Wisconsin Territory has been surveyed
and brought into market, which will add greatly to the stability and
prosperity of the mining business.

_Coal._ Bituminous coal abounds in Illinois. It may be seen, frequently,
in the ravines and gullies