what are called Iron Ridge and Iron Hill. The ore is abundant and good.

In Stoddard County, near Kitchen's Mill, I discovered large quantities of this ore. It was used in building the dam for the mill. In township 27, range 9, the bluffs toward Duck Creek Swamp contain vast beds of good hematite. I followed the outcrop several miles along the bluffs. But the most extensive of the deposits of this ore was discovered in the bluffs facing Mingo Swamp, in township 27, ranges 8 and 9. Here it appears as a regular stratum in the magnesian limestones. It is four or five feet thick, and extends along the bluff nearly a mile.

In Scott County I discovered several beds of this ore in the tertiary rocks in the bluffs facing the southern swamps. The beds are extensive; but the quality is inferior.

Bog Ore is very abundant in the swamps of Southeast Missouri. I examined vast beds of this in Scott County, in section 2, township 27, range 14, on the Stake Glades, where the ore is nearly one foot thick over a large area. From this point the ore was seen at short intervals in St. John's Lake or swamp down to the Iron Ore Ford, where the quantity is very great-the bed about one foot thick. This ore also exists in Big Cypress west of Sandy Prairie. It was also discovered in extensive beds in the swamp southwest of Charleston, Mississippi County. In Dunklin County, in Buffalo and Honey Cypresses, fine beds were discovered several miles in length. The quantity of this ore in this part of the State is very great-more than enough to supply all future demands.

Spathic Ore or Carbonate of Iron.-This ore is found in greater or less quantities in all parts of the State where the coal measures exist; but the most valuable beds yet examined are those in the tertiary rocks in the bluff of the southern and eastern parts of township 28, range 13, and township 29, range 14. There are four regular strata of the ore, varying from one to two feet in thickness. These beds crop out of the southern face of the bluffs at various points between Benton and Commerce. The ore is good, and may be worked to great advantage.

LEAD. Next to iron, lead is perhaps the most abundant of all the valuable metals in the State. Our lead mines have been worked with great success for the last half century. It is true that the amount of mining done and the success at various points have been somewhat variable, as is always the case in mining operations, when conducted and carried on by men who have but little capital and practical knowledge of the work; as ours have been in some considerable de

gree at least. Many of our mines have been neglected for various reasons. Some on account of disputed titles, others from the general depression of the business affairs of the West; but there is no good reason to suppose our mines would be less productive now than at any previous period. Few or none have been exhausted; and many are now worked with greater success than at any previous time. All the facts encourage a more extended effort to work out and more fully develop some of the neglected lead mines of our State.

Our space will not permit a detailed account of the lead mines of the State. There are more than five hundred localities, old and new, that promise good returns to the miner; two hundred and sixteen have been catalogued in my report on the southwest branch of the Pacific Railroad.

The Eastern Lead Region comprises a large portion of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Crawford, Phelps, Dent, Madison, St. François, St. Genevieve, and some parts of the adjoining counties, giving an area of some 5000 square miles.

The Southwestern Lead Region comprises a large portion of Newton and Jasper, and portions of the adjoining counties, making an area of about 200 square miles.

The Osage Lead Region contains a considerable portion of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Camden, and Miller Counties, an area of about 1000 square miles.

The Southern Lead Region comprises portions of Taney, Christian, and perhaps other counties. The extent is but little known; at least 100 square miles have been examined.

It is not to be supposed that these areas, large as they are, contain all the lead lands of the State. We have not yet examined a single county south of the Osage and the Missouri without finding in it more or less of this valuable mineral. And, besides, nearly all the counties in Southern Missouri are underlaid by the true lead-bearing rocks of our State.

We have then 6300 square miles in which lead deposits in workable quantities have been found and successfully worked; and at least 15,000 square miles more of lead-bearing rocks, where we may reasonably expect to find valuable deposits of this mineral. I must refer to the Geological Reports for the details of our lead mines.

COPPER.-The copper mines of Shannon, Madison, and Franklin Counties have been known for a long time. Some of the mines of Shannon and Franklin were once worked with bright prospects of sucSome in Madison are still yielding with good results. Deposits of copper have been discovered in Dent, Crawford, Benton,

cess.

Maries, Greene, Lawrence, Dade, Taney, Dallas, Phelps, and Wright Counties. But the mines in Franklin, Shannon, Madison, Dent, and Washington give greater promise of yielding profitable results than any others yet discovered. When capitalists are prepared to work these mines in a systematic manner, they may expect good returns for the money invested.

ZINC. Sulphuret of zinc is very abundant in nearly all the mines in Southwestern Missouri, particularly in those mines in Newton and Jasper, in the mountain limestone. The carbonate and the silicate. occur in the same localities, though in much smaller quantities. The ores of zinc are also found in greater or less abundance in all the counties on the southwestern branch; but the distance from market, and the difficulties in smelting the most abundant of these ores, the sulphuret, have prevented the miners from appreciating its real value.

It often occurs in such large masses as to impede very materially the progress of mining operations. For this reason, black-jack is no favorite with the miners of the Southwest. Many thousand tons have been cast aside with the rubbish as so much worthless matter; but the completion of the Southwestern Branch will so lessen the cost of transportation as to give a market value to this ore, and convert into valuable merchandise the vast quantities of it, which could be so easily obtained in Jasper, Newton, and other counties of the Southwest.

Considerable quantities of the sulphuret, carbonate, and silicate, also occur in the Eastern Lead Region. At Perry's mine, at Mount Hope mine, in township 36, range 3, east, sections 4 and 7, and at a locality near Potosi, these ores exist in some considerable quantities; but little has been done to test the value of the ores of zinc in these and other localities in the State.

COBALT AND NICKEL.-Ores of these metals are obtained in some considerable quantities in Mine La Motte. Small quantities only have been discovered in other localities.

MANGANESE.-The peroxide of manganese exists in small quantities in the second sandstone, on the plank-road, west of St. Genevieve, and at Buford's ore bank.

SILVER.-Silver has not been discovered in the State, save in minute quantities in the sulphuret of lead.

GOLD. Gold has been found in very small quantities in a few places in the State; but I have no evidence that any of the localities will pay for working them.

PLATINUM.-Platinum has been reported in one or two localities in the State; but I have not been able to obtain any.

BUILDING MATERIALS.-The possession of materials for the construction of habitations is one of the first necessities of the human race; and, as the race advances in civilization and wealth, the demand for the more beautiful and durable qualities constantly increases, and it becomes a matter of no small importance to determine whether we are prepared to supply the demand which our advancement will create for dwellings, warehouses, and public edifices. Our examinations in Missouri prove the existence of such materials in nearly every formation in the State.

Limestones, suitable for building purposes, are abundant in the Upper and Middle Coal Series, in the St. Louis Limestone, the Archimedes Limestone, the Encrinital Limestone, the Chouteau Limestone, the Onondaga Limestone, the Cape Girardeau Limestone, the Trenton Limestone, and the second, third, and fourth Magnesian Limestones. All of these formations are, more or less, employed in the places where they are exposed. Numbers 1 and 6 of the Upper Coal Series furnished the rock used in the Presbyterian church and the public-house, erected by Mr. Park, at Parkville, and in the public buildings at Fort Leavenworth, all of which indicate their durability and beauty; and the ease with which it is wrought into any desirable form renders it a very economical building material. No. 41, of the Middle Coal Series, is a light-gray semi-crystalline limestone, which is both durable and beautiful. It is used at Lexington. The St. Louis limestone has many beds of excellent rock, which are extensively quarried and employed for various purposes in St. Louis County. The Archimedes beds furnish a very great number of very durable limestone. It is used for the custom-house in St. Louis. The Encrinital strata are more extensively employed for economical purposes than any other limestone in the State. The State University and the Court-house, at Columbia, furnish abundant proof of its adaptation to building purposes. The upper beds of the Trenton limestone, and the dark compact and the light magnesian strata in the lower part, are very desirable building stones; but the middle beds are not so durable; still they are sometimes used. The court-house, in St. Louis, presents good examples of the Trenton limestone.

The strata of Cotton-Rock, so abundant in the magnesian limestones, are much used. The State-house, Court-house, and many other buildings at Jefferson City, show the adaptation of this limestone to such purposes. This is the same as the buff limestone imported into St. Louis from Illinois for houses. This rock is equally good at many localities in our own State. These formations, also, contain numerous beds of the silicious and the magnesian crystalline

varieties, which are much stronger and more durable than the CottonRock.

Marbles. There are several beds of excellent marble in the State. The 4th division of the encrinital limestone is a white, coarsegrained, crystalline marble, of great durability. It crops out in several places in Marion County. One of the best localities is in the bluffs of the Mississippi, between McFarlin's Branch and the Fabius. The lithographic limestone would furnish a hard, finegrained, bluish-drab marble, that would contrast finely with white varieties in tesselated pavements for halls and courts.

The Cooper marble of the Onondaga limestone has numerous pellucid crystals of calcareous spar disseminated through a drab, or bluish-drab, fine, compact base. It exists in great quantities on the La Mine, in Cooper, and on See's Creek, and in other places in Marion; and it is admirably adapted to many ornamental uses.

McPherson's marble, a bed of the Trenton limestone, situated in the vicinity of Rattlesnake Creek, is a hard, light-colored, compact limestone, intersected with numerous thin veins of transparent, calcareous spar, which give it a beautifully variegated surface when well polished. It appears to be strong and durable. McPherson's marble block, on Fourth Street, St. Louis, is constructed of it.

Cape Girardeau marble is also a part of the Trenton limestone located near Cape Girardeau. It is nearly white, strong, and durable. There are several beds of very excellent marble in the magnesian limestone series. In sections 34 and 35 of township 34, range 3 east, are several beds of semi-crystalline, light-colored marbles, beautifully clouded with buff and flesh color. They receive a fine polish, are durable, and well fitted for many varieties of ornamental work and building purposes. But one of the most desirable of Missouri marbles is in the 3d magnesian limestone, on the Niangua. It is a fine-grained, crystalline, silico-magnesian limestone of a light drab, slightly tinged with peach-blossom, and beautifully clouded with the same hue or flesh color. It is twenty feet thick. This marble is rarely surpassed in the qualities which fit it for ornamental architecture. The beautiful Ozark marbles are well known. Some of them have been used in ornamenting the Capitol at Washington. The localities are very numerous throughout the Ozark region.

There are also several other beds in this and the other magnesian limestones which are excellent marbles. Some are plain, while others are so clouded as to present the appearance of breccias.

Granite.-Granite Knob will furnish any amount of a superior coarse granite, admirably adapted to all structures where durability and