MINERAL RESOURCES. 87 
MET A I, M IE ROUS ORES. 
During the progress of the present (i< Id work in Mississippi many localities were examined 
at which ores of gold, silver, lead, and copper were said to occur, hut such examinations 
always resulted in failure to find even a trace of the reported metal. Occasionally massi s 
of galenite (lead sulphide) are found at many localities in the State, but it seems certain thai 
they were brought by the Indians from the lead district of Missouri. It is safe to say that 
there is practically no possibility of finding a workable deposit of gold, silver, copper, lead, 
zinc, or tin ores in the State of Mississippi. With regard to iron ores the case is different, 
but even for them the prospect is not encouraging. 
GLASS SAM) VXD SILICA. 
An inexhaustible supply of building and molding sands is found in the Wilcox formation 
of northern Mississippi. Good glass sands are present at Jackson, Byram, and various 
other places along Pearl River (PI. IV, A, p. 32). 
One mile from Tennessee River, in Tishomingo County, is a large deposil of pure-white 
fine-grained silica. It occurs in a horizontal bed 8 to 10 feet thick. It was formerly mined 
for an adulterant, But its whiteness and purity render it a valuable material for making glass- 
Thousands of tons of it w T ere mined without any evidence of exhaustion. The Chester sand- 
stone in southern Tishomingo County is another source of a desirable glass sand. 
OIL AND GAS. 
The development in recent years of large oil and gas bodies near the Gulf coast in Texas 
and Louisiana has given rise to the idea that similar bodies may he found in Mississippi. 
This idea is based on the assumption that geologic conditions in southern Mississippi are 
practically >i:nilar to those in the Beaumont and Sour Lake districts. It can be stated posi- 
tively that this assumption is entirely erroneous and that no large oil pools of the Beaun onl 
type can be expected to occur in Mississippi. If oil is found at all it must be in entirely 
different strata and under different geologic conditions. 
Small local accumulations of oil or gas are occasionally struck in chilling wells for water, 
but none of commercial value have ever been encountered. Interesting but commercially 
unimportant flows of gas are of frequent occurrence in the Yazoo delta. The following de- 
scription of such a flow is taken from the notebook of Dr. Eugene A. Smith, now State 
geologist of Alabama. The observation was made in 1871. 
These wells are about 1 mile from Walnut Ridge Place, in sec. 2 or 3, T. 13, R. 9 W., 100 yards or so 
from the line between Tps. 13 and 14. One of the jets is ignited and has been burning for three months 
ormore. The gas issues from atube about 2 inches in diameter, and the flame is about 3 feet long. Four 
of these pipes were driven down, and the record is that after passing through about 45 feet of the ordi- 
nary -oft strata the tubes struck a hard substance into which no amount of driving could make them 
penetrate; the hammer would rebound and no impression would he made. The first tube was then 
drawn up and another was driven down a few yards distant, with the same result. They tried again, 
going about 50 yards away, and again the hard substance was reached. Again they moved 200 yards 
away and again the same result. 1 1 was noticed that some gas issued from the holes made by thi I 
and on applying fire the gas was ignited. The tube was left in the last well and the gas from it i 
burning. 
COAL AND LIGNITE. 
It can be stated with certainty and without reserve that true coal does not exist in Mis- 
sissippi. At frequent intervals the new-papers report the discovery of coal deposits, but 
Qn examination the " coal - ' thus discovered is invariably found to be merely lignite. Ai t he 
St. Louis Exposition of 1904 specimens of bituminous coal were shown in the Mississippi 
exhibit. These specimens, however, were not collected from any locality in Mississippi, but 
were sent in from mines located in Alabama, a considerable distance east of the State line. 
At present the lignites of the State are of little economic importance owing to the cheap- 
ness of coal and the great abundance of wood. The vast quantities of pure lignite in the 
Eocene beds will doubtless be drawn on when the forests are destroyed and coal becomes 
