410 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
west and narrow the strip to three ranges, and we shall include 
all the zinc deposits of any amount. This may be accounted 
^for from the fact that along this line north and south the blue 
limestone is brought up a great many feet above where it is 
on either side of it. 
(2.) Both to the east and west of these lines, we find heavy 
deposits of drift, and following close on the lines, both to the 
north and the south; while within the lines no portion of this 
formation is found in the lead district, or as far north of it as I 
have examined. This fact alone is sufficient to prove that this 
little strip of land, along which the mines and mineral veins of 
southern Wisconsin are found, and that continue to extend 
north beyond them, was a well defined elevation at the time of 
the drift formation. Jt must have stood then as an island sur¬ 
rounded with the waters of that period, as it stands now an is¬ 
land in the midst of boulders and gravel. 
(3.) And fhe most important fact is, that this driftless 
strip of land within these lines is an anticlinal, or crest line 
from which the strata dip to the east and to the west. To 
prove this has taken a large amount of time, and close obser¬ 
vation, as 3 ~ou will see by the vast amount of country I have 
examined. 
The importance of this fact to the lead district and to the 
mineral resources of the state is such, that I will present here 
some of the details of my observations; for if this fact be well 
established, the fact of a north and south axis must follow; 
and with this comes the fact of the relation of our mineral 
veins to the same physical forces acting from below; and then 
the fact that this north and south axis extending through the 
state will be the physical basis df our mineral wealth, and 
along its line other, and perhaps, more important ore districts 
may be found. 
We must not expect the features of this anticlinal or crest 
line to be very distinct on the surface. The disintegrating and 
abrading agencies, which through vast cycles of the past have 
been leveling down and leveling up the surface of the lead 
district, have almost obliterated them; and to find them tinim- 
