Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1854-08-02
FOR Inc iriDhbe
Our Ravines Once the Sites of Rich Lodes.

by the Wdv, merited some more respecudt ac-
Acknowledgement from our present Executive than
that he has fit TO give it, has put the public
we'll in possession of most of its outward well
as inward characteristics. We who jewellers
in il may well be congratulated that the explora-
ton of it made first among the official duties
of Mr.. D., now that the prosecution of those du-
ties is suspended But it il yet left to more curse
nence should be called The feature of tie coun-
try.
Daniels notes. distinctive trait, the absence
of all drift throughout the region--a singular
~ truly, that not sand bank, or bed of gravel
or boulder, or rounded pebble should be found any
where, This is a fact TO which we shall have
occasion to recur
What strikes the eye OF the traveller earlier in
most instances, however, is the exceedingly dis
rupted, tunbled appearance of the ground; while
all is yet seemingly so fertile Up hill and down
he has been accustomed to find more or less every
where; but here, he experiences its being so much
more so; II appearing to his fancy though the
surface might day have been moulded by
some huge warfe-iron into heaps and hollows-
the activities being all about the same height,
and succeeding one another usually by about the
same interval-the rayines not as elsewhere tor
rent fashion, pursuing pretty direct course from
high lands to low, but meandering almost
every which way, as if what dug them ont mus:
have been in pursuit of something else tnan their
mouths
Here at Mineral Point and more, at Shullsburg
and Galena, he finds people having their dwellings
Ind in gorges. as the recesses among the hills
would elsewhere be called He looks about him
TO see where the shty floods could have come
from which tore things away along their course
/ thus He looks in vain. He sees no mountain
range, nor the remnants of any: nor in coming
hither has he had opportunity to see them, this
side the Alleghanies on the east, or the Rocky
Mountains the west Mounds here and there
ne sees, something elevated above the surrounding
country, but their limited dimensions forbid that
they should ever have been the source of very
large bodies of water; besides that the ravines
are by no means deepest or most numerous in
their vicinity.
Not only does he not see where torrents could
dow from to make such deep Gu as these but
the mouths of the ravines;~big and little, being
observed to b. oitentimes at about the same level
for example the junction Of the valley OF Fever
river with the Mississippi boJtom-so that the
rapidity of the streams in both is not far from
the same; and the relative position of the several
parts olthe surrounding country being taken to have
always been what ii is-for which the alb
sence OF all signs of violent displacement appears
TO vouch-he is at loss to see the lower deep
.,-itf,sb +ba
through to. Ii Fever river and the Mississippi.
he says rIn al the same raye now, they probably
at the satne rate when the level of the beds of
both Was higher But he knows that there can be
no such thing as torrent flow, without a con
siderable decIyity; that is to say, that the water
must have a chance Of running away from the
foot, Jasier than it is supplied at the head But
he sees no opportunity for this to any large de
gree, at the foot Of our raynes uuless, which.
of course is out of the question: the entire length
of the Mississippi bottom, Gulf of Mexico and
all, are made torrent beds of; and then the mys-
terry of the place whittier the fall could be- it is
plain, would be transferred to Symnes' Hole.
or where not.
1t has been anticipated what determines it in
the mind of the observer, that there have been no
volcanic upheavals in this region As he passes
down under the bluffs, along the line of the ra-
vines. he observes the corresponding strata of
rock on either side, from the bottom to the sum
/ NIT, lying at the same level super-imposed one
/ above another, with almost exactevenness: what
! Slight pitch they have corresponding not at all
with the indications Of the surface, but being al
most uniformly one towards the south
west
] he mystery remains why this CONFORMATION
of the ground. Rolling prairie is seen far and
wide elsewhere, reminding the observer strongly
Of the swell Of ocean waves in what is naurically
termed "a long sea; bat here, the smIitude is,
to "a short sea" The round lies in ioaves, one
! is at first prompted to say butupon examination
the smaller rsvnes all found to be ramifca-
tons of some one larger. here as elsewhere The
action of water courses in producing the phenom-
/ enon, in part al least, is hence evident But the
multiplicity of the ravines here their being found
SO in clusters, where remarkably deep regularly
arranged often in platoons; and their being of
such uniform depth, throughout nearly their
] whole exten,-thcSe certainly are eccentrici-
ties.
/ What has caused them? Surely the ordinary
cXcavating agent, water, has been largely aided
/ here by some quality of the ground
Perhaps some ready to dismiss the problem,
with saying that here happened to be numerous
assures IN the rocks. But what has made them
thus wide Not the flow of torrents, we have
+ reason to Judge. The rocks as you view them
on either side OF ravine, have not the appearance
! OF having been rent apart; but rather of having
undergone sort of cares, or quiet wasting away
I Of the part which lay intermediate They rise
4 from the suhacent rock of the bottoms in lines
nearly perpendicular.
/ When II is recolec;ed that our.yeins of miner
/ a! are apt 10 lie in crevices which are gathered
/ together in clusters or ~gangues,7 the several
VEINS o! the cluster being about equal distance
apaF,-anG that is found often lodged in small
cavities OF the adjacent rock 50 that on its reno
i val IL any quiet way that rock must needs be
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