57 



of the mineral kingdom, as occurring in the lead mines of 

 Scotland — viz. the absence of fluor spar as a matrix, was 

 stated to be applicable in a good degree to our own country. 

 " Fluor spar, it is true, is found associated with the sulphuret 

 of lead at the Southampton mines ; but it is in very small 

 quantities, and by no means constitutes the matrix. It also 

 occurs with galena at Shawneetown in Illinois ; but in the 

 extensive lead mines of Missouri and the Upper Missouri, it 

 has not been discovered. 



The author next proceeded to a notice of some of the most 

 celebrated lead mines in Europe, viz. those of England, 

 France, Spain and Germany. In the former country, those 

 of Derbyshire are believed to have been worked for centuries. 

 As several blocks of lead have been found in this vicinity 

 with Roman inscriptions^ is supposed that they were wrought 

 by the Romans. 



In the United States, the different ores of lead occur in va- 

 rious places in the Atlantic States, from Maine to Georgia. 

 Generally, however, galena predominates, and is the ore 

 which is* most profitably and extensively worked. In the 

 states of Maine and Vermont, galena occurs in small quanti- 

 ties in granite and limestone, but no mines have as yet been 

 opened. In Massachusetts a mine was opened at Southamp- 

 ton, eight miles southwest from Northampton, and about the 

 same distance from the Connecticut river, some time previous 

 to the revolutionary^ war, but it was neglected for upwards of 

 forty years. It was again opened in 1809. Professor Silli- 

 man visited this mine in 1810, and published an account of it 

 in Bruce's Minerological Journal. A more recent account of 

 it has been given by Prof. Hitchcock in the 6th volume of the 

 American Journal of Science. In Connecticut, galena occurs 

 at Middletown and at Southington, associated with pyritous 

 copper, in a gangue of quartz and sulphate of barytes. The 

 mines which were formerly opened at both these places, have 

 since been abandoned. At Huntington, in the same state, 

 this ore of lead a No occurs in a similar gangue, and is worked 

 nrincinallv forth*' silver which ii remains, and which it is said 

 amounts to 3.\ per cent. In New-York, the ores of lead are 

 not very widely disseminated. Galena, however, occurs in 

 many places, and a mine has been opened in Columbia coun- 

 ty. In Pennsylvania, at Perkiomen, is a mine upon the old 

 red sandstone formation, in which the galena is accompanied 

 by the carbonate, phosphate, molybdate, and sulphate of lead, 

 vellow blende, several ores of copper, and the scaly red oxide 

 of iron. In Virginia, mines of lead are found on the Great 

 Kenhawa, about 25 miles from the southern boundary of the 



