252 On the Zinc Mines of Franklin^ N. J. 



it not fatal to the validity of the highly ingenious and interesting 

 deductions of Faraday, that they are thus shown to be utterly in- 

 competent to explain the inseparable association of cohesion, 

 chemical affinity and inertia with gravitation ; while the exist- 

 ence of a vacuity between Newtonian atoms, mainly relied upon 

 as the basis of an argument against their existence, is shown to 

 be inconsistent both with the ingenious speculation, which has 

 called forth these remarks, and those Herculean " researches" 

 which must perpetuate his fame. 



Art. III. — On the Zinc Mines of Frmiklin, Sussex County^ 

 New Jersey \ by Francis Alger. Member of the American 

 Academy, of the Society of Natural History, (fcc. Boston. 



Mineralogists need not be told of the great variety and rich- 

 ness of the mineral productions of Sussex County, N. J., as 

 the published memoirs of Gibbs, Nuttall, Vanuxem, Troost and 

 others, have already made these productions familiar to them, 

 and their own cabinets bear ample testimony to the fact. It is 

 my present intention, not to speak of these except incidentally, 

 but to call the attention of mineralogists, and the public gen- 

 erally, to the valuable and extensive zinc mines of this dis- 

 trict. Some recent observations, founded on explorations made 

 with the view of working the ore, have enabled me to speak 

 with more certainty on this subject ; and I shall endeavor, as 

 briefly as possible, to state the principal facts which have come 

 under my notice. It should be remarked, in the first place, that 

 the zinc of Sussex County, has been a subject of historical noto- 

 riety for the last seventy years. The property purchased by Lord 

 Sterling, comprised all the mines of valuable metals that might 

 be discovered ; but it does not seem certain that its value was 

 at all appreciated by him, or that he had any knowledge even of 

 the existence of zinc in the ore. We have good evidence that large 

 quantities of what is now known as the red oxide of zinc were 

 shipped to England to be smelted for copper, under the impression 

 of its being the common red oxide of copper. The openings from 

 which it was then taken, now remain, and they evince but little 

 judgment in mining operations. But whether the ore was ever 

 reduced, we have no certain knowledge ; we only know that the 



