254 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



"switchback," as it is technically called, this 

 mioiature railway crosses, in two miles length, 

 some sixty diflerent gold and silver mines, 

 now being developed, and threads its devious 

 way among a maze of shafts, pits and tunnels 

 too numerous and too frequent for the easy 

 prosecution of the construction party. 



The view developed from these high moun- 

 tain peaks will be exleoded, novel and of deep 

 interest. Some twenty miles northwest we 

 are, on a portion of this railway, faced by the 

 high, steep flice of James Peak, over 13,000 

 feet above the sea, whilejust below us we look 

 into the chimneys, the yards and the busy 

 streets of Black Hawk and Central City, while 

 again to the east we see high, woody mountain 

 ranges and a distant view of the sea-like prai- 

 ries. Opposite, the mountain sides are seamed 

 with galleries, open cuts and the broken fracr- 

 ments of years of active prospecting and profit- 

 able mining. 



This railway is being built with great care. 

 Its track will be wide, solidly built, and of un- 

 usually carefully selected materials, for this 

 special purpose ; rails to be fifty pounds to the 

 yard, and it is to be provided with locomotives 

 that can ascend with four or five cars to Cen- 

 tral City, at the rate of eight miles per hour. 

 All to be completed by August, 1877. 



E. L. B. 



EDITORIAL EXCURSION. 



• On the 5th and Cth of this month the 

 Eleventh Annual Convention of the Editors of 

 Missouri was held at Fredericktown, in the 

 southeastern portion of the State. The usual 

 addresses, poems and orations were delivered 

 by the various members, and we were very 

 hospitably and generously entertained by the 

 citizens of the place. For the ensuing year 

 the following officers were elected, viz : 



President, Col. J. E. Hutton, Mexico In- 

 telligencer ; Vice Presidents, Charles E. Has- 

 brook. of the Kansas City Price Current, and 

 John B. Williams, of the Fulton Telegraph ; 

 Kecording Secretary, M. B. Chapman, of the 

 St. Joe Chronicle ; Corresponding Secretary, 

 W. C. Bacon, of the Boonville Advertiser; 

 Treasurer, H. B. Cutter, of the Glenwood Cri- 

 terion ; Orators, G. H. Crumb, of the Poplar 

 Bluff Citizen-Post; J. H. Turner, of the Wa- 

 kanda Record. Essayist?, Col. T S. Case, of 



the Kansas City Review of Science and Indus- 

 try; Will. J. Knott, of the Chamois Leader; 

 J. D. Fisher, of the Troy Herald, and Adam 

 Rodemeyer, of the Centralia Guard. For the 

 address before the Convention, J. B. McCul- 

 lagh, of the Globe-Democrat. 



The Iron Mountain R. R., which connects 

 St. Louis with Fredericktown, runs through a 

 mo.st romantic country, the scenery being 

 broken into ever-changicg vistas of hill and 

 dale, mountain and river, while the beautiful 

 orchards and vineyards and wonderfully pro- 

 ductive mines of iron, lead and other mineraLs, 

 render it exceedingly profitable to its people. 

 Granites also, and marbles of various qualities 

 and colors are found, while at Mine La Motte 

 lead, copper cobalt and .nickelt are not oraly 

 mined but smelted and separated. This prop- 

 erty. Mine la Motte, covers an extent of 24,- 

 000 acres and 300 to 400 men find employment 

 in the various operations carried on at the 

 minesand works. The production of lastyear 

 was 3,400 tons of lead alone. The nickel and 

 cobalt are only reduced to a matte and ship- 

 ped to Europe for refining. 



After finishing the business of the convea- 

 tion the members accepted an invitation to 

 visit Hot Springs, Arkansas. On the way 

 thither we passed through the town of Char- 

 lestown, Missouri where we were shown many 

 remarkable specimens of ancient pottery^ 

 which had been exhumed in the vicinity. 



Hot Springs village is located in a very 

 narrow valley between two spurs ot the Oz- 

 ark Mountains, running north and south, and 

 consists of one street skirting along both sides 

 of a small stream for about two miles. It is 

 surrounded by hills on every side, and the 

 spring?, some sixty in number, start from the 

 west side of one named Hot Spring.s Moun- 

 tain. Their temperature ranges from 102° to 

 150° and their altitude above the creek bed 

 varies from a few inches to over one hundred 

 feet, while they are elevated above the sea 

 level about 1,400 feet.. 



Their chemical constituents are not re- 

 markable in any de^zree, and no one from 

 merely tasting these waters would note the 

 presence of any peculiar flavor. Numerous, 

 analyses have been made, of which we give 

 several below : 



In 185G Professor E. H I^rkin,of St. Louis, 



