the Lead Mines of Missouri, ^c. 63 



table productions of the country. This region is well irri- 

 gated, and very healthy, being possessed of a fine climate. 

 Mr. Schoolcraft remarks, that during a residence of ten 

 months he never heard of a death ; the country is free from 

 the fevers which infest some of the neighbouring regions. 

 It seems, however, that the animals are visited by what is 

 called the mine sickness. " Cows and horses are frequent- 

 ly seen to die without any apparent cause. Cats and dogs 

 are taken with violent fits, which never fail, in a short time, 

 to kill them." It is said that the inhabitants impute these af- 

 fections to the sulphur exhaled in smelting the lead, as the 

 cattle are often seen licking about the old furnaces. But 

 sulphur is not poisonous either to men or ani;i:als. The 

 author imputes it to the sulphat of barytes, whh which the 

 district abounds, which he states is a ^^ poison to animals.''^ 



The carbonat of barytes is eminently poisonous, but we 

 have never heard that the sulphat is so. Pvlay not the lick- 

 ing around the furnaces expose the cattle to receive lead in 

 some of its forms, minutely divided — or if it be not active 

 in the metallic state, both the oxids and the carbonat, which 

 must of course exist around the furnaces, would be highly 

 active and poisonous. Is it not possible also that some of 

 the natural waters of the country may, in consequence of 

 saline or acid impregnations, dissolve some of the lead, and 

 thus obtain saturnine qualities ? We must allow, however, 

 that we are not acquainted witli the existence of any natural 

 water thus impregnated. 



Among the mineral productions of this region, certainly 

 not the least remarkable mentioned by Mr. Schoolcraft, is 

 the Iron mountain, where the ore is piled in such enormous 

 masses as to constitute the entire southern extremity of a 

 lofty ridge, which is elevated five or six hundred feet above 

 the plain : the ore is the micaceous oxid, and is said to 

 yield good malleable iron. 



There is another body of iron ore five miles v.est of the 

 iron mountain, scarcely inferior to that mentioned abovc 

 and it appears that several other beds exist in the same vi- 

 cinity. 



Zinc is abundant, but as the ore is the sulphuret, it is not 

 very valuable. It is not mentioned that the calamine, which 

 is the vsefiil ore of 7iinc, has been found. 



