Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1872-02-27

Dodgeviile, Ridgeway. Porter's Grow
and blue mounds form a change 0
Mineral ranges, extending through
nine ranges of townships; and thei
course IS as distinctly marked as th,
lines of the town CO. in which they
are found. The north side of thi
belt Is said to be the extreme norti
side OF the lead district, beyond
which no ore has been found, anC
beyond which it has been SAID, none
will be found.
SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF LEAF
BELTS.
The Phenomena presented in these
belts OF mineral lead cannot fail tc
lead Us to regard them as separate
and distinct mineral belts. There
may te places where strong north
and south assures carry the ore de.
posita out little farther in one place
than another, or where SIN all depos.
its may be found along those north
and south assures between those
belts, But such are exceptions and
met with but seldom The fact,
however, of their persistent course,
their parallelism, their eastern and
western extension, establishes beyond
doubt the fact that they are separate
aud distinct, although closely related
mineral belts.
In the report of 1862, the grouping
OF the assures into ranges aud of the
ranges into districts was noticed, but
no effort was made to arrange it
with higher class of phenomena, or
TO show the relation of these facts
to higher class Of facts, consequent
ly the lead district has been looked
upon up to this time as heterogene-
Gus unsystemized aggregation of
mineral ranges. But the above facts
show that there is systematic ar
rangement Of the phenomena OF the
lead district under some natural law.
| by which 1T forms itself into q perfect
whole, Hence we have a group of
assures forming themselves into a
range: and group of ranges form
ing themselves into belts, and thus
we find the lead district composed of
four well defined belts Of mineral
land, running parallel to each other,
with about the same eastern and
western extension. Now the guess
ton for consideration is, do these
important and well defined relations
end here, or is there physical basis
by which they tend and to which
they belong.
Now the fact that the fourth belt
is along well defined elevation of
land, of the same bearing and extern
sion, produced by the same general
geological cause, acting from below
as an elevatory force, proves beyond
all doubt that the slight disturbance
Is roIorrou ~ vno 60AU DUtU ov4Sr4
must be the result of the same, or
similar cause. And what can be a
more logical inference than that the
other belts have the same origin, and
that the phenomena of the whole dis
trict are the results of tho same gen.
eral geological cause.
A NORTH AND SOUTH BACKBONE wILH
MINERAL R1BS.
Here we have new fact, and a
very important one, namely, a me-
chanical force acting beneath the
strata of the lead district, and giving
character to its phenomena, this fact
sheds new light on our Investigations
and enables US to take higher and
more intelligent grounds, from which
we can see a continuation, of parallN
ell elevations such as the Baraboo
Hills and other ridges, and foldings
of the strata extending away into
the far north. These facts indicate
another fact, namely, the presence of
north and south axis of elevation,
TO which these east and west eeva-
tiOns, and belts Of mineral land be-
long as subordinate features, crossing
it at right angles, limited to its east
ern ane western extension. If this
be fact, we shall doubtless find
here, not only the physical basis that
underlie the phenomena of the lead
district and its cause, but a line of
physical disturbance along which
other and perhaps more important
ore districts may be found But be-
fore we accept it as fact, let US sub
NIT it also to rigid test.
In order to put this in tangible
form so as to examine the facts to
the best advantage, let us take the
length of those belts as the width of
the lead district, and from each end
draw line north. Within those lines
we shall find the following facts,
which, of themselves are sufficient to
prove the existence of the north and
south axis above referred to.
! ID II we take a narrow strip of land
near the centre of the belt within those lines,
say three ranges on the east, and one or the
west Of the fourth principal meridian, four
ranges IN all, we shall find in this little mar
row strip mole mines, and from these mines
more ore has been raised than from all the
lead districts outside of It, (notw outstanding it
includes in width fourteen or fifteen ranges
or townships)l may say twice the amount, and
should be within the bonds of truth II | were
to say three times the amount. Within those
four ranges OF townships the ore deposits are
near each other, and often very extensive, but
| d. VIC CANhd cdSA VI Nesl from lilei0 tueV De-
come few and far between, and often, though
not always, small. In connection with this |
will notice the fact that within this narrow
strip of land all of our zinc deposits are found.
Indeed we may strike off the range to the
west, and narrow the strip TO three ranges and
we shall include all the zinc deposits of any
amount. This may be accounted for from the
fact that along this line, north and south, the
blue limestone is broughtupa great many feet
above where il is on either side.
(2.) Both to the east and west of those
lines we find heavy deposits of drift, aud fol-
lowing close on those lines, both 10 the north
and the south while within those lines no
portion of this formation is found in the lead
district, or as far north of it as have exam
ined. This fact alone is sufficient TO prove
that this little strip Of land, along which the
mines and mineral veins of Southern Wiscon-
sin are found, and that continue to extend
north beyond them, was we'll defined eleva-
ten at the time of the drift formation II
must of stood then as an Island surrounded
with the waters of that period, as it stands
now an island in the midst of boulders and
gravel.