444 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
beyond the physical forces and conditions with which our 
mines and mineral veins are inseparably connected. 
The unfavorable opinion of the lower magnesian recorded in 
Prof. Hall’s report of 1862, I have no doubt grew out of the 
teachings of this error, as we can see by reference to the re¬ 
port. “ The principal localities (says the writer, page 409) which 
have been quoted and relied on as affording evidence of the 
productiveness of the lower magnesian, are the Kickapoo and 
Olcking’s diggings, near Franklin.” These are the only places 
noticed by the writer, and only one of these did he visit per¬ 
sonally. The Kickapoo diggings, visited by Dr Kimball, and 
from whose notes the writer obtained his information, are sev¬ 
eral miles to the north of the lead district proper; and whatever 
maybe said in favor or otherwise, of the lower magnesian there 
can have no more bearing on the lower magnesian underlying 
the mines of the lead district, than the very rich mines of 
Missouri found in the same formation. The upper magnesian 
at the same distance from the known boundary lines of the 
lead district has in no instance shown more favorable condi¬ 
tions than what are presented at Kickapoo. But whatever 
may be the conditions presented by this formation at that dis¬ 
tance from the mineral belts of the lead district, they furnish 
no rule by which we can determine what it may be in the lead 
district, under the influence of causes which have rendered 
the upper magnesian so productive. 
The other place visited by the writer where mining had 
been done in the lower magnesian, and in fact the only place 
he had visited personally, was Olcking’s diggings, near Frank¬ 
lin. These diggings are situated on the extreme north side of 
the lead district, and a little to the north of the belt of mineral 
land in town six, the last belt of the lead district in that di¬ 
rection but near enough, perhaps, to come somewhat, at least, 
under the influence of the/physical forces of that belt. 
“ On visiting this locality in 1859,” says the writer, page 
412, “ I found only one person at work there, from whom a 
very dismal account of the prospect of mining in the lower mag¬ 
nesian was obtained. He had sunk a shaft twenty-five feet 
t 
