Wisconsin and Missouri Lead Region. 39 



It is on the old Ansley tract, and extends in a westerly direction 

 towards Mineral Point. For about the depth of fifteen feet the 

 fissure was found to be filled with "gossan" and lumps of sul- 

 phuret and carbonate of copper mixed in it. Below this depth 

 is clay with a little ore scattered through it. The lumps above 

 were of all sizes up to two hundred pounds weight. No shafts 

 were ever sunk to prove this fissure at greater depths ; but there 

 is every reason to suppose that it will be found productive in 

 other parts beside the strip near the surface. The little rock 

 veins prove that the ore belongs to the formation as much as the 

 lead ores, and in whatever way it may have been brought up 

 from below, it is likely to have formed other deposits in the fis- 

 sure worth looking after. 



In the report of the geology of Cornwall, Devon and West 

 Somerset it is remarked that "the per centage of cases is consid- 

 erable when an iron ochreous substance named gossan prevails, 

 and copper ore is connected with it, and it may be said that the 

 instances are very rare where copper ore is found in fair quantity 

 in a lode, without gossan having been discovered on the back or 

 upper part of that lode." p. 326. 



The sandstone lies at about the depth of one hundred feet be- 

 low, and although in it we are not to expect to find the fissures 

 or cracks (if they have dwindled to them) productive, still there 

 is sufiicient room above for a large supply of ore. It is said that 

 1,640,000 pounds of ore (probably including unwashed and gos- 

 san) have been raised from this fissure ; 50,000 pounds were sent 

 to England, and 100,000 pounds are now on the bank of the 

 Mississippi River at Sonapee ; 620,000 pounds have been taken 

 to the old furnace, and the little one at New Baltimore, and be- 

 tween 500,000 and 600,000 pounds remain now on the surface 

 at the mines. This is evidently a very rude estimate. It is also 

 said that the ore sent to England yielded twenty per cent, of 

 copper ; at any rate, however, it brought in a bill of expense. 

 Were the ore well washed from the clay and iron ore mixed with 

 it, and the lump ore carefully broken up and washed^ there is no 

 reason to doubt that it may be smelted with profit ; but all the 

 operations so far have been badly conducted. There was no 

 uniformity in the quality of the ores used, no judgment exercised 

 concerning the quality or quantity of flux, and the smelting was 

 carried on in furnaces that must be blown out every twenty four 



