744 GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LEAD REGION. 



Had it been possible, it would have been preferable to prepare the statement of each 

 district from the mines therein contained; but it is seldom that a written account has 

 been kept by the owners, of the lead ore produced from any range, mine, or diggings, 

 extending back a sufficient number of years to furnish the information required. 



Statements of the production of individual mines and ranges have been frequently 

 furnished, and when they were believed to be reliable, they have been incorporated in 

 the preceding part of the report. Such statements, however, are usually based on the 

 memory of the persons who give them, and are therefore somewhat liable to error. 



The lead ore produced in each district is seldom exported from it as such, but is 

 usually reduced by the furnaces of that district, and then exported as pig lead. There- 

 fore it was believed that the most accurate statistics could be obtained from the books 

 of the smelters; accordingly circular letters have been sent to each of them, to which 

 in most instances they immediately responded, giving a full and complete statement 

 taken directly from their books, and leaving nothing further to be desired. Some were 

 unable to do so, as their old accounts were lost or mislaid, and some, perhaps, were un- 

 willing to have a detailed statement of their business published. All who did not 

 respond to -the circular were personally visited, and a statement giving the general 

 average obtained. Although some of the individual statements herewith submitted 

 may be liable to slight error, yet it is confidently believed that the estimates are, as a 

 whole, rather too small than too large; and that they are as reliable as it is now possible 

 to make them. We are thus enabled to give the products of the separate parts of the 

 district, and a total of the whole. 



In presenting these statistics, besides the product of the furnace, some remarks will 

 be added as to the localities of the mines which form its supply, and the number and 

 kind of furnaces. 



BEETOWN DISTRICT. 



Commencing in the western portion of the Lead region and proceeding eastward, the 

 first is the Beetown furnace, in which is smelted all the ore of the Beetown diggings, 

 together with that of Muscalonge, Nip and Tuck and Hackett's diggings. 



The furnace is owned and operated by Hon. Christopher Hutchinson, by whom it was 

 built in 1868. Previous to that time, all of the ore of the above mentioned district was 

 smelted at Potosi. It is a reverberatory furnace, known as a Drummond, with a capa- 

 city of 9,000 pounds of ore in twenty-four hours. 



It consumes one and three-fourths cords of oak wood, and is operated by two men. 

 The number of pounds of lead ore smelted, from June 19, 1868, to October 1, 1876, is 

 as follows: 



Yecr. Pounds of Ore. Tear. Pounds of Ore. 



1868 800,000 1873 850,000 



1869 1,100,000 1874 1,000,000 



1870 1,700,000 1875 800,000 



1871 1,300,000 1876 700,000 



1872 900,000 



Total 9,150,000 



PLATTEVILLE DISTRICT. 



Proceeding eastward, the next is the Platteville district, which has two furnaces, both 

 near the village. Here is smelted all the ore raised in the Platteville and Whig dig- 

 gings; and also that from Big Patch in the town of Smelser: 



