7 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Leap experienced a decline, comparing the highest market prices 

 in New York, in January, 1880 and 1885, respectively, of about 39 per 

 cent ; or, comparing the average of prices for New York and London 

 for the same years, about 30 per cent. The world's production of lead 

 between the years 1880 and 1883 appears to have increased in nearly 

 the same ratio, or far in excess of the increase of the world's population 

 within the same period. With an approaching exhaustion of a num- 

 ber of the heaviest lead-producing mines in the Rocky Mountains, 

 United States,* and a notable decline in the lead product of British ores 

 (50,328 tons in 1882 as compared with 37,687 tons in 1885), the price 

 of lead tends to increase. The decline in the price of lead, above noted, 

 occasioned the suspension or bankruptcy of many English lead-mining 

 companies, and during the year 1885 much distress from this cause 

 was reported as existing among English lead - miners. The following 

 is an example of another economic disturbance contingent on changes 

 in the production and price of lead : Formerly the domestic supply 

 in the United States of white-lead and of all paints, the basis of which 

 is oxide of lead, was derived almost exclusively from manufactories 

 situated upon the Atlantic seaboard ; but with the discovery and work- 

 ing of the so-called silver-lead mines of the States and Territories west 

 of the Mississippi, and the production of large quantities of lead as 

 a product residual, or secondary to silver, the inducements offered 

 for the manufacture of white-lead and lead-paints, through local re- 

 ductions in the price of the raw material and the saving of freights, 

 have been almost sufficient to destroy the former extensive white-lead 

 and paint business in the eastern sections of the United States, and 

 transfer it to the western. 



Nickel, not many years ago, was a scarce metal of limited uses, 

 and .commanded comparatively high prices. Latterly the discovery of 

 new and cheaper sources of supply has tended to throw upon the 

 market an amount in excess of the world's present average yearly con- 

 sumption estimated at between 800 and 900 tons and, as a conse- 

 quence, there has been " over-production, and unsatisfactory prices to 

 dealers." There is, moreover, little prospect that prices in respect to this 

 metal will ever revive one mine in New Caledonia alone being esti- 

 mated as capable of producing two or three thousand tons annually, if 

 required ; while the discovery of richer and more abundant ore depos- 

 its than have ever before been known is reported as having resulted 

 from the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. 



Tik. The production and price experiences of this metal during 

 the last quarter of a century have been very curious. The world's 

 consumption of tin from 1860-'64 constantly tended to be in excess of 

 production, and prices rose from 87 (the lowest figure) in 18G4 to 

 159 (the highest) in 1872. In this latter year the mines of Austra- 

 lia began to produce very largely, and in a short time afforded a 

 Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1886. 



