422 W. F. Hillebrand — Zinc-hearing Spring Waters. 



so numerous in that part of Missouri and across the State 

 boundary in Kansas, although there are no known indications 

 of zinc ores within a quarter of a mile of the springs and no 

 large producing zinc mines within two miles of them. The 

 limestones and cherts of the region supply the calcium and 

 silica, and the organic matter, if not originally of surface origin, 

 may well have come from oxidation of the bitumen which is 

 found in quantity in the limestone. The permanent water level 

 thereabouts is very near the surface, and it is not to be supposed 

 that the particular waters under discussion have come from a 

 great depth or are other than surface waters. The amount of 

 zinc sulphate in them, however, is from two to three times as 

 much as could have resulted under the most favorable condi- 

 tions from oxidation of zinc sulphide either directly or indi- 

 rectly by the sole agency of oxygen carried down by surface 

 waters. It is probable, therefore, that the ore bed whence the 

 supply of metals is derived lies very near the surface, above 

 the permanent water level of the country, where the atmos- 

 pheric oxygen has direct access to it through porosity of the 

 earth's surface. The powerful influence of oxygen thus acting 

 on moist ore-bodies, which have been exposed by the opening 

 up of mines in changing the character of the waters of a 

 region, is shown by E. Ha worth* in writing of the mine waters 

 of the adjoining county of Cherokee, in Kansas: "The well 

 and spring waters before the mines were opened were first 

 class, .... But as soon as the mines were opened all was 

 changed, and the older the mines the worse the water. Ani- 

 mals of all kinds began being seriously affected," etc. He 

 ascribes the high contents of the waters in metallic salts solely 

 to the greater amount of oxidation rendered possible by ex- 

 posure of masses of ore in the mine workings and on the dumps 

 to atmospheric action, and gives instances to show how rapidly 

 they succumb to it. He gives also a qualitative analysis of a 

 mine water drawn from near the bottom of a shaft 130 feet 

 deep which was nearly full of water at the time, and also the 

 total weight of solids. The latter was over four times as high 

 as in the spring waters above described, and there were found, 

 in addition to the constituents already enumerated, ferric and 

 ferrous sulphate in large quantity and free sulphuric acid. 

 Carbonic acid, alkalies, and copper are not mentioned by him. 

 Laboratory of the IT. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C, Jan. 1892. 



* A contribution to the Geology of the lead and zinc mining district of Chero- 

 kee County, Kansas, presented to the faculty of the Kansas State University, 

 1884, p. 34. 



