INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
CuemicaL Lasoratory or Taz Grotogican Survey, 
New Harmony, Indiana, September, 1858. 
Dr. Davin Date Owen, 
State Geologist of Arkansas: 
Sm—lIn conformity with your instructions, I herewith transmit to you 
the Chemical Report of the Geological Survey of Arkansas, containing 
the chemical analyses of such ores, rocks, etc., as you deemed most impor- 
tant for incorporation into this volume. 
The analyses have all been performed in the chemical laboratory of the 
survey, with the exception of the qualitative examinations of the natural 
waters, which were executed in the field. Among the valuable mineral 
productions, in which the northern counties of Arkansas abound, special 
attention has been paid to the ores of zinc. Specimens of the ores from 
all the principal localities which were visited by us in the first field excur- 
sion in the fall of 1857, have been subjected to analysis, and I should not 
neglect to state, that I have endeavored, by a careful selection of average 
specimens, to give to those, more directly interested in those mines, a 
correct idea of the average value of these ores. Iam happy to say, that 
the results of my examinations even surpass the favorable opinion which I 
formed of their value in the field; and there remains no doubt, in my 
opinion, that with judicious management, the working of these mines 
and smelting of the ores, extracted therefrom, will prove not only very 
remunerative to the enterprising miner and smelter, but highly beneficial 
to that portion of the state in which these mines are situated. Much, 
however, remains yet to be done with regard to the development of the 
mineral riches of these counties: analyses ought to be made of the differ- 
ent kinds of ore taken from the old mines, as well as of specimens from 
the newly discovered mines*; all the rocks associated with the ores, ought 
*Mr. E. T. Cox collected specimens of ore from new localities during the field-excursion in 
the spring of 1858, but from some unaccountable reagon, the boxes containing them, have not yet 
arrived. 
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