BARYTES. 



BY JOSLPH HV[)H PRATT. 



[Jnsoph Ilydo Pratt, K'^'lofiist and consult iiiK I^ini^^ cnKiiifrr; Ivirn IlftrtforM, f'onn , 

 February 3, 1.S70; graduated from the Slicnidd Scirntilic school of V!il<- iiriv. r-jtv ; 

 instructor in mineralogy at Yale and later at the rniv«Tsity of North Cur- 

 geologist of North Carolina, lS'.>7-0i); assistant gi-ologist of the United Sta! 

 cal survey since 1900. Author of about 12") monographs and other articles dh huip r- 

 alogy and geology, mostly contributed to scientific periodicals.) 



The first mining for barytes in the United States was 

 very pro])a].)ly in Westchester county, X. Y., prior to ISOO. nncl 

 this was followed in the next decade, 1800 to 1870, hy the open- 

 ing of the mine at New Haven county, Conn. Between 1870 

 and 1880 barytes deposits had been opened in CJeorgia, Mis- 

 souri, Pennsylvania, and Yirginia, while those of New York 

 and Connecticut had ceased to l)e producers. Between 1880 

 and 1890 Illinois had been added to the states producing this 

 mineral, and during the next decade, from 1890 to 1900, 

 North Carolina and Tennessee became producers, and in 1902 

 deposits of this mineral began to be developed in Kentucky. 

 This makes a total of nine states in which this mineral has been 

 found in commercial quantity. Missouri, North Carolina, 

 Tennessee, and Virginia are producers of this mineral, with 

 known deposits in Illinois and Kentucky, which are Ijeing rap- 

 idly developed. The Missouri deposits are furnishing more 

 than one half of the barytes mined in the United States. 

 They are located in Cole, Crawford, Miller, St. Francois, and 

 Washington counties, with by far the larger pro]iortion of the 

 mines in the last named county. There are a number of de- 

 posits in these five counties that pr()])ably contain barytes in 

 quantity, but on account of their distance from the railroad 

 they are not mined to any great extent at the pre.>^ent time. 

 The mineral is found for the most part associated with hme- 

 stone. This rock is often altered and decompo.sed to some 

 depth, leaving a residual clay-like material in which the bar>'- 

 tes, w^hich has resisted the alteration, is found. Sometimes 

 the barytes is encountered close under the grass roots. The 

 lead ore, galena, is associated more or less with the ban'tes, 



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