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this land will pay heavy to work. They will have to be worked by shaft. Here a first-class coal-bank could be opened. The roofing over the second and third beds would be superb, consisting in bastard lime-rock, hydraulic slate, soapstone slate or steatite, with sand-rock above, which would make the roofing durable and safe.

"Also underlying land owned by F. C. Barker, being on section 10, some 23 miles east of Knoxville, three beds of coal exist. The first vein has been proven, being some two feet in thickness; and some 35 or 40 feet below on the English Creek bottom, the black steatite slate crops out just above the second vein. This vein must necessarily make to all of six or seven feet in thickness, after penetrating the heavy body of the bluff by an entry. Here is an excellent point for running in a sloping entry where a heavy body of coal can be proven and worked. The third bed would have to be proven by shaft. The second vein, however, is the one to work now. roofing would be good, and the coal can be taken out to good advantage. The range runs north and east with the dip to the southeast. There are some twenty acres contained in this piece of land, with the English Creek passing at its base on the south end of the land, with a bluff above to a height of some seventy-five or eighty feet, having a splendid point for proving the second bed of coal by a sloping entry.

Its

"Some three miles southeast of Knoxville I examined a coal bank owned by Luther Burt and Wm. O. Burt. These gentlemen own some 27 acres of excellent coal land, upon which this coal bank is now opened. I passed through the entries and rooms of this bank. The coal in this bank, as an average, ranks higher than any coal I have yet seen in this section of the county, it being by far the strongest gas coal, and very highly chemicalized. By actual measurement of this vein I find it to be from four to six feet in thickness. At the head of the cross-entry it is six feet thick. As they run into the body of the hill the coal becomes purer and more solid. This coal is hard and compact, being an excellent article for shipment. The main entry of this bank, and also the cross-entry, are well run in, showing that the miner who run them understood his business. Roofing is good and safe, being hydraulic in its character, with black soapstone slate. This land is in the subdivision of the southeast quarter of section 21, township 75, range 19. The coal is the second bed or vein which they are working. The third bed undoubtedly underlies the second.

"I also examined several coal banks, which are now abandoned, on section 9, and find some splendid coal land, where heavy banks could be worked to good advantage. Jonathan Jones also owns a piece of land in this section under a portion of which two beds of coal exist, without doubt. I exmained several other pieces of land, and find heavy bodies of coal under the same and excellent points for proving the same, which I will not specify in this report.

"Again, coal is not the only valuable substance that can be mined in this section of the county. Within three-quarters of a mile southwest of the courthouse in Knoxville, a heavy bed of fire-clay can be worked to good advantage, and made to pay handsomely. Also, within a mile of the courthouse, to the northwest, another bed of fire-clay and potters'-clay exists, which it will pay heavily to work. In other places heavy beds of these clays exist. in close proximity to the city of Knoxville; and pottery-ware men should

make a note of this. Large quantities of brick-clay also exist within a short distance of the city. Jonathan Jones has plenty of this clay on one portion of his land, being the farm on which he resides, about one inile east of the city. This clay is of easy access, and a tip-top' article. Also on the portions of land owned by R. H. Underhill, in section 10, splendid brickclay exists, which I have tested by the severest heat. Plenty of this clay.

"Beside the coal and the clays, this county yields some of the best rock of any county in the State. The heavy stone-quarries I have not examined as yet, but I intend to do so, and will speak of them more explicitly in a future report.

I have examined a splendid quality of lime-rock on land owned by F. C. Barker,. in section 10, on one corner of his coal land. This rock will make an excellent quality of lime—its proportions being about 55 per cent of lime, about 40 per cent of magnesia, and about 5 per cent of a foreign subHave also examined three or four sandstone quarries within two and three miles of the city. Sandstone is of a ferruginous nature, and by being exposed for a year after it is hewn it will become seasoned, and will make good building-stone.

"Meadow ore, which is conchoidal bog iron ore, also exists in various places in the vicinity of Knoxville; but I have not found it as yet in su fficiently large quantities to pay. I may by further research.

"I understand that mineral paint beds also exist in this section of the county; but I have not come across it as yet in sufficient quantities to pay.

The soil of this portion of the county is generally rich-bottom lands being marly, and as fine tillable land as can be found anywhere. The high lands are well adapted for orchards, etc.

"EXPLANATIONS, ETC.

"The Carboniferous system inthis county undoubtedly rests upon the Subcarboniferous system. In Scott and Muscatine counties the Carboniferous rests upon the Devonian system. The word 'Carboniferous' derives its name from the fact of the immense quantities of carbon locked up in the vast deposits of coal, and the lime-rock of the system. It is an established fact that coal is of vegetable origin. The great primeval forests of the past, in accordance with the decrees of an All-wise Creator, have, during the course of time, been slowly changed and transformed (by various chemical processes in nature), and converted into enduring beds of coal. The chemica! properties of coal are carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. True anthracite coal contains about 90 per cent of carbon. Carbon is one of the elementary substances largely diffused in nature-the diamond being pure crystallized carbon. Anthracite coal was once bituminous, but has been metamorphosed by great heat and other chemical processes in nature into anthracite coal, throwing off its bitumen altogether. (My reasons for giving these explanations are, that I was requested so to do.)

"Each of the different systems of the earth's crust seems to be adapted by nature for its own peculiar mineral; and I include water, oil, petroleum, clays, sands and rocks, in the catalogue of minerals. The old granite, the foundation of the earth's crust, seems to be the age of various minerals, or

the great chemical labaratory for the preparation of various minerals, some of which rise in the form of vapor till they reach certain systems above, bearing their affinity, where they congeal and harden into solids. The Silurian system (that is the lower), bears us all the lead ore from the Galena lead-fields, which include the Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin lead fields. The mountain iron of Missouri also comes from this system-and also the Lake Superior copper.

"The petroleum of Pennsylvania and other points in this country, where it is found in paying quantities, is procured from the Devonian system. In certain systems we procure chalk, marble, etc. The Mainmoth Cave of Kentucky is in the Sub-carboniferous system, lying just below the Carboniferous. Thus it is with the various systems of the earth, each having its own peculiar adaptation, from the base to the top.

"The Great Architect and Builder of the various planets and worlds that revolve through space, has so arranged the various systems and groups of the planet upon which we live, that each one is filled with a vast store of wealth for man if he will only dig it out. And the infinite wisdom displayed in the works of his mighty hand, in so constructing everything, placing the riches of the earth's crust within the reach and grasp of puny mortals, should cause man to bow in reverence and offer thanks to the Great Benefactor."

CHAPTER III.

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Policy of the Government-Treaties-Annuities-The Sac and Fox Indians-Keokuk— Wapello-Poweshiek-Indian Incidents and Reminiscenses-The Neutral Strip-The Potawattamies-Johnny Greene and His Band-The Sioux.

WHEN the Europeans first landed on the eastern shores of this continent, intent on its conquest in the interests of civilization, the first question which came up for solution was the Indian question. This question individuals grappled with on their own individual responsibility until the mother country on behalf of the colonies assumed the management of Indian affairs; and since the establishment of the republic the United States, in its sovereign capacity, has assumed control but at no time, from the very first to the present time, has the question been disposed of satisfactorily to any one, nor yet in the near future does there appear to be any satisfactory disposition of the Indian except to kill him.

In the management of Indian affairs in Iowa the government seems to have been peculiarly fortunate. This was partly due to the policy pursued by the government and partly due to the peculiar character of the fact that the Sac and Fox Indians who controlled the larger part of the territory were a more tractable tribe of Indians and their chiefs had a higher sense of veracity, integrity and honor than any other representatives of the race with which the white man came into contact. The Pottawattamies were few in number and had little influence; what influence they had was in the interest of peace and order. The Sioux are and always have been treacherous and bloodthirsty, but the supremacy of the Sacs and Foxes kept them somewhat in abeyance.

It has been the custom of the general government in dealing with the

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