THE SCIENTIST. 
bers are sometimes stoped out to a 
lieight of one hundred feet, witli 
pillars of the mineral bearing- 
material of immense proportions 
left to support the roof. Winding 
passages and dark and gloomy aban- 
doned drifts, in many cases caved in, 
or if in clay, swelled until almost 
closed; the throbbing of the pumps, 
the stunning shock of the blasting 
and ubiquitous and chilling waters 
from all sides make up a scene to 
impress one with the beauties of 
nature on the surface above and the 
possibilities of the hereafter below. 
There seems to be no definite 
theory of the cause of the formation 
of lead and zinc in the zinc belt 
rather than anywhere else, nor as 
to how^ it was formed. Appearances 
seem to bear out the theory that it 
is forming still, as tools have been 
found in some of the old abandoned 
mines of 20 years ago that have been 
reopened incrusted with zinc crystals. 
The writer has found in an excava- 
tion on an old road crystals of lead 
of a delicate shape, showing that 
they formed in the mud from 
material dropped from the ore 
wagons. 
Dilute sulphuric acid dissolves 
zinc, forming sulphate of zinc; this 
solution flowing down or up as the 
case may liave been, would deposit 
its excess in all openings met with 
in its progress, along with carbonate 
of lime (calcite), forming the crys- 
tals as now found. There is no 
lack of sulphur, that we can readily 
understand, but where the w^aters 
found the zinc originally is a ques- 
tion none can answer. Even if this 
theory is correct, it only accounts 
for the present form of the mineral. 
The mystery of its origin is as un- 
fathomable as ever, unless it came 
from the store houses of old eartli 
far below and the mineral belt is 
but a system of fissures forming a 
channel of escape for the mineral 
bearing w^aters. 
But surmise will never advance us 
much in our know^ledge of this dis- 
trict; it w^ill take years of toil and 
immense expenditure of capital. In 
Belgium the zinc mines have been 
sunk 10 a depth of 2,000 feet. In 
the Joplin district 200 feet is about 
the deepest attained, yet it is said 
one of the mines at Blendeville, 
Jasper county, is the richest zinc 
mine in the world. There is every- 
thing to encourage the ])elief that 
greater de])ths will reveal richer 
deposits of mineral. 
The present money value of the 
output from the district is about 
1100,000 per week. Lead is worth 
about 1^25 per 1,000 pounds and 
zinc about 1^23 per ton. 
Me. Edisox has recently presented 
to the public his philosophical views 
of animation or energy, which is sub- 
stantially that every existing atom 
contains its ratio of vitality. This 
is commented on in the usual way by 
eminent scientists, but, in the usual 
way, the results are just as indefinite 
as the conclusions of the philoso- 
phers of ancient Greece. 
