394 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ing must be introduced; a system that combines capital and 
skill; a system like that by which mines are worked in other 
parts of the world. There are no mineral strata, or groups of 
mineral veins any w'here, that could be profitably worked 
many years with such a system as that by which mining 
operations have been carried on in the lead district of Wis¬ 
consin. 
But before this system can be successfully introduced and 
established, the question of the origin and nature of our 
mineral veins, with their relation to the lower strata must be 
settled so far as it can be done in the present condition of our 
mines. Before any man, or any company of men, will be dis¬ 
posed to risk the amount of money necessary to unwater those 
mines to a greater depth, either by levels, or by pumping, they 
will want to know if the theory advocated in our last report 
is really founded on facts; if not, they will want to know 
what relation these mineral veins bear to mineral veins of 
other mining regions; whether or not they are connected with 
physical forces acting from beneath, and what the probabilities 
are of deposits of ore in the lower strata. 
Besides this, the question of proving the lower magnesian 
limestone of the lead district by sinking a shaft into it has 
been before the legislature more than once ; and should the 
state see fit at some future day to appropriate a sum of money 
for this purpose, nothing would be of more importance to the 
experiment than a knowledge ot the origin of our ore deposits, 
and their relation to this lower formation, as far as the phe¬ 
nomena of the lead district will give it. Without this know¬ 
ledge, a selection of the proper place cannot be made; and 
without a proper selection, the chances are a hundred to one 
that the money will be spent to no purpose. The general and 
pressing wants of the lead district seem to center here; and 
to meet these wants, so far as a survey of this kind can meet 
them, has been my object. 
It must not be expected then, that my report will be a re¬ 
port of the lead district as a whole, but of only that class of 
information which has a bearing on this question. In presenting 
