METHODS OF PROSPECTING AND MINING EMPLOYED 
IN THE KANSAS LEAD AND ZINC DISTRICT. 
METHOD OF PROSPECTING BY DRILL. 
Prospecting is the first step taken in the development of a 
mineral property. If the prospecting shafts or drill holes do 
not show a sufficiently large body of ore, the property is 
abandoned. 
Prospecting in this district was formerly done by test pits 
or shafts, but that method of proceedure is now being super- 
seded by drilling, which is more rapid, and in most cases 
cheaper, although much more uncertain. Prospecting by 
drilling in irregular deposits has proven in most cases unre- 
liable and unsatisfactory. The hole may pass within a few 
inches of a rich body of ore, and yet give no indication of its 
presence; or, again, it may pass through a small, flat or 
lenticular mass of ore in such a manner as to lead to the 
belief that a large body of ore has been struck. Only by a 
thorough, systematic arrangement of holes can anything defi- 
nite be learned. 
A large number of widely different forms of prospecting 
and well drills are kept busy in this district, preparing the 
way for further development. 
There is not much to be said in regard to the method of 
drilling employed, yet, in the operations taken as a whole, 
there is no single machine that requires such careful atten- 
tion, no single operation necessitating such skilful labor, as 
does drilling in the flint districts around Galena. 
The American rope or oil-well system is the most common 
in the district. Thecarpenter’srigis, however, only occasion- 
ally used. Self-contained machines are in more general use. 
The method of operation is as follows: A standard or 
tower with a sheave at the top forms part of the framework 
of the drill. A rope passes over the sheave, one end of which 
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