bone”). Whether these ores can be obtained as an incidental 
product of the lead diggings, in sufficient quantity to justify 
the establishment of furnaces and factories is not yet fully 
determined; though the quality of the ore and the growing- 
value of the white oxide—now coming to be extensively used 
as a pigment, in preference to the oxide of lead — strongly 
favor the presumption that they may. 
Dr. A. A. Hayes, Assayer to the State of Massachusetts, 
to whom several specimens of the carbonate were submitted by 
the State Geologist of Wisconsin for analysis, thus speaks cf 
Zinc generally and of these ores in particular in his official 
communication: 
“The value of white oxide of zinc as a pigment is becoming generally 
known, and it has a market price much higher than lead. Most of the 
metallic lead consumed for paints is first made into white lead, which thus 
becomes the staple manufacture based on metallic lead. Now r these ores of zinc, 
familiarly known as “dry-bone,” are the best ores for producing the white 
oxide of zinc; but the manufacture is not, in this case based on the metal, 
but on the ore. By merely heating these ores on heaps of brush-wood, they 
lose their carbonic acid and water, and become soft mixtures of from 79 to 90 
per cent, oxide of zinc, with earths and iron oxide. The material thus ob¬ 
tained, mixed with charcoal, gives in this muffle furnace, by one operation, 
nearly all the oxide of zinc which the ore cont ains. Extensive manufacto¬ 
ries can be sustained by the consumption at present going on, of this product, 
which continues to be largely imported. But these ores are equally well 
adapted to the production of metallic zinc, a very useful metal, bearing a 
higher price than lead. The ores used abroad for the production of this 
metal, are far inferior to these in quality, and they are not extensively dis¬ 
tributed. On economical considerations, therefore, these ores have a high 
value. They offer the advantage of employing a large capital with a cer¬ 
tainty of the manufacture being profitable and important. A State promis¬ 
ing such mineral deposits must be regarded as rich in resources of a highly 
important kind.” 
Prof. Whitney has informed us that a small furnace was es¬ 
tablished near Mineral Point, in 1859, for the smelting of this 
ore, but that for some reason its operations have been discon¬ 
tinued. It is his opinion that this product is too much scat¬ 
tered over the Lead District to justify an expectation of its 
economical manufacture until facilities for transportation are 
increased. In Belgium and Silesia in the Old World, and in 
