prospecting

Hunting or searching for lead. The process is thus described in a sketch of Life on the Upper Mississippi:

"The chief mart of the lead trade is in the town of Galena, built upon a small, sluggish stream. In travelling through the upland prairie of this neighborhood, you will see many hillocks of earth, as far as the eye can reach, as if some huge animal had been burrowing beneath, and had thrown up the dirt in that manner; but you may, by chance, meet two or three men with a bucket, a rope, a pick-axe, and a portable windlass, and the difficulty is explained. This, in the language of the country, is a prospecting party; which, being interpreted, means that they are on the look-out for ore, if it is to be found within ten or fifteen feet of the ground; having come to the end of the rope at about that depth, and found nothing, they remove elsewhere, the prospect not being good. When ore is found, they either sell out their discovery, or mine the vein on a small scale themselves."--N. Y. Literary World, June 3, 1848.