462 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
studies, and from which he teaches his children the principles 
of practical mining. It is fiom a knowledge of these princi¬ 
ples that his judgment is formed; a judgment sometimes so 
matured as to become almost unerring in the selection of min¬ 
eral ground. But of the laws underlying these phenomena as 
their cause, he is ignorant. Not ignorant of their existence, 
for he is surrounded with their phenomena, and guided by 
their phenomenal teachings, but ignorant of their nature and 
their mode of operation. 
Now if science can come forward with the laws governing 
mechanical and chemical disturbance in the earth’s crust; the 
laws governing the direction of the lines within which these 
forces work; the laws governing the relation and correlation 
of forces combined to form this beautiful system of forces, 
the harmony and order of which is given in the beautiful sys¬ 
tem of fissures so apparent in the mineral strata, then this 
practical knowledge of mining may be placed upon a scientific 
basis, and the cause or causes of mineral formations be as 
logically and as safely deduced from phenomenal data, as the 
existence of Neptune was deduced from the disturbances of 
Uranus. 
And if with this, we could banish from our mining creeds 
the elements of chance and caprice, and admit in their place 
the teachings of natural law, I can see no reason why the time 
may not come when from the combined knowledge of practi¬ 
cal and scientific men, we may not be able to point with as 
much accuracy to the productive places in the earth’s crust 
as the astronomer now points to the return of a comet in the 
heavens, or an approaching eclipse of the sun ; for both are the 
results of natural laws, Nor will this time be long delayed if 
scientific men become more practical, and practical men more 
scientific. But let us turn now to the mineral veins and ore 
deposits of our own lead district. 
In entering upon the consideration of the mineral veins and 
ore deposits of the lead district, we do well to bear in mind the 
phenomena of the district as a whole, and even its connection 
with phenomena outside of it, for the general laws underlying 
