NovEMBER 1, 1918] 
hitherto produced within the empire in only 
small quantities, thus helping to make the em- 
pire self-contained as regards most important 
items for defence and commerce. The small 
plant which has been started has been putting 
out regularly 600 pounds of zine per day for 
the last eight or nine months: and now a new 
10-ton plant has been installed, permitting a 
production of 15 tons daily. The ultimate size 
of the plant at Risdon for the production of 
zinc is expected to have ten times the capacity 
of the present unit. It is also hoped to turn 
attention by and by to other industries made 
possible by the government hydro-electric 
undertaking. The success of the enterprise at 
Risdon will, it is confidently anticipated, favor- 
ably affect the zinc industry of the empire. 
MANGANIFEROUS ORE IN OREGON 
Deposits of manganese and manganiferous 
ores in many parts of the United States have 
been examined during the last two years by 
geologists of the United States Geological 
Survey, Department of the Interior. This is 
essential work, because the limitation of ship- 
ping facilities has reduced the imports of 
manganese ore from other sources than the 
West Indies and Central America in 1918 
nearly one third below those of 1917 and there 
is a prospect that they will be still further 
reduced in 1919. The importation of the iron- 
manganese alloy ferromanganese has decreased 
in much greater proportion and probably will 
soon be stopped altogether. To offset these 
decreases in the supply of manganese the Geo- 
logical Survey has assisted in stimulating the 
domestic and the near-by foreign production 
by examining the manganese deposits in this 
country and in the West Indies with the view 
of determining the availability of the ore. 
The producers of domestic manganese ore 
have responded actively to. the call made on 
them and have increased their production from 
27,000 tons in 1916 to 116,000 tons in 1917. 
It now appears that the production of ore in 
1918 will be 185,000 tons. 
Manganese is used in various ways. Metallic 
manganese in the form of ferromanganese is 
alloyed with steel to make manganese steel 
SCIENCE 
439 
and manganese dioxide is used in the manu- 
facture of dry batteries, in glassmaking and 
in the chemical industries. Manganese, how- 
ever, is used principally in making all Besse- 
mer and open-hearth steels, in which it is 
incorporated in the form of iron-manganese 
alloys, which will serve as deoxidizers and 
purifiers of the molten metal. More than 95 
per cent. of all the manganese consumed in 
this country is used for this purpose. 
An examination of several manganiferous 
deposits in Oregon, including a reconnaissance 
of 150 square miles near Lake Creek, Oregon, 
was made in July, 1918, by J. T. Pardee, a 
geologist of the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, Department of the Interior, in company 
with Henry M. Parks, Director of the Oregon 
Bureau of Mines and Geology. Mr. Parks has 
kindly placed at the disposal of Mr. Pardee 
the results of his previous work in this area, 
and Messrs. Parks and Pardee are jointly 
responsible for the estimates and conclusions 
here given. 
So far as known the manganiferous de- 
posits of the Lake Creek district are confined 
within an area of about 150 square miles in 
the east-central part of Jackson county, Ore- 
gon. The area is rather sparsely settled, and 
farming is the principal industry. The near- 
est large town is Medford, which is 15 miles 
directly southwest of the deposits but nearly 
twice that distance by the available roads. 
Eagle Point, a town on the Pacific & Eastern 
Railway, is the most convenient shipping 
point. The surface of the region is hilly and 
in places mountainous, but only moderately 
rugged. The local relief ranges from a few 
hundred feet to 2,000 feet or more, and the 
general elevation is between 2,000 and 2,500 
feet. Streams are numerous, though most of 
the smaller ones become dry in summer. The 
climate is mild and the year is made up of a 
wet and dry season, corresponding to winter 
and summer. Most of the rather heavy winter 
precipitation falls as rain. The greater part 
of the surface that lies below 2,500 feet is 
covered with a mixed growth of madrona, 
manzanilla, and chapparal bushes and rather 
