LEAD ORE. (5| 



this kind of pottery are to be seen scattered over the fields in 

 dozens of places. A very perfect large bowl of soapstone was 

 dredged out of the Tombigbee river a few miles below Demo- 

 polis by Mr. EH Abbott, and is now in the cabinet of the Uni- 

 versity of Alabama. On Coon Creek, near the Tallapoosa 

 river, in the county of the same name, there is an old quarry of 

 this rock from which the Indians manufactured their utensils by 

 shaping them out still attached to the parent rock, and when 

 finished, splitting them off. Circular markings on the face of 

 the scapstone mass show still where these finished products 

 were broken away from the solid rock. Almost as a matter of 

 course, this locality is associated with a tradition of an Indian 

 silver mine. 



Slabs of soapstone have been used from Chambers county for 

 lining the lime kilns at Chewacla, for the facing of bake-ovens, 

 and for the furnaces used for the concentration of copper ore at 

 Wood's copper mine, the material for the last named use being 

 obtained from the vicinity of the mines. 



Lead Ore. 



The only occurrence of galena of any consequence thus far 

 known in Alabama, is in the Trenton limestone about five miles 

 west of Jacksonville, in Calhoun county, where much work was 

 done by the Confederate government during the Civil war. 

 Traces of the old quarries are still to be seen, and fairly good 

 specimens of the ore may be picked up around them. With the 

 present perfected machines for concentrating ores it would 

 seem that this deposit might yet be profitably worked, if only 

 the quantity of the ore were sufficient to justify the erection of 

 suitable plant. This can be ascertained only by the expenditure 

 of much money. Very much of the lead ore of Southeastern 

 Missouri is no richer than some which can be obtained from the 

 Calhoun county mines. The subject is well worth testing. 



Some small veins with galena have also been observed in the 

 Knox Dolomite. 



Loose pieces of pure galena may be found on the surface 

 over the entire state, in localities where it could not possibly be 

 in place. The fact that similar occurrences are noted in all the 

 other states adjacent, has led to the inference that these loose 

 specimens have been dropped by Indians and others who have 



