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

conditions OF the rock, as the vegeta
ton of plant does on a certain
condition of the soil. The miner
looks just as much TO these condi
tions Of the rock for the metals and
their ores, as the farmer does to the
condition Of the soil for his plants
And we hear the miner talk just a.
much about mineral bearing rock, al
we do the farmer about productive
and barren soil.
In the formation aud filing oil
mineral veins we recognize, (anC
very distinctly, too, heat as one Of
tho most efficient agencies Now
can we possibly explain the phe
nomena of mineral veins, with their
deposits of ore, without reference to
water as the medium in which this
material has been prepared, and
through which it has been brought
into the assures and held subject to
the chemical conditions that has
wrought it into its present crystalline
form
Along those lines in the earth's
crust, where such conditions are
known to have existed, and where
evidences of their past activities still
remain, (although like fossils in the
rock), are the lines along which our
mines and productive mineral veins
are found, and they are found only
along such lines. They are, indeed,
as much the isothermal lines of the
past, that mark the distribution of
temperature aud conditions necessary
TO the production of mineral veins, as
are the isothermal lines of the pres
ent, that mark the distribution of
temperature and conditions necessary
to vegetable productions.
Amomg the varied and complicated
laws governing the mineral kingdom,
we notice heat and water playing a
very important part. In the condi-
tons necessary to the formation and
filling of mineral veins they seem to
be essential. The mechanical dis
turbances Of the crust of the earth
that produced the assures in which
our mineral veins are found, are
evidently due TO some form Of heat.
The metamorphic rocks, in the region
of which our most productive min
eral strata are found, have been
changed from their original condition
by heat. The notifications of other
rocks not classed with the meta
morphine, but more Intimately con-
nected with mineral veins, afford
strong evidences Of the unequal dis
tribution Of heat. The ores of every
kind filling our mineral veins and
other cavities in the rock have evi.
IDENTIFY been formed by the rigid laws
of primeval chemistry, the fires of
whose laboratories have been FED by
natural heat. Thermal waters and
boiling springs (the lingering rem.
nant Of what was once q mighty host
of physical force) remain to tell us
that they had their origin in and
received their solvent powers from
heat. The systematic grouping of
assures in mineral strata, under the
direction of magnetic or electro
magnetic action, is due, doubtless, to
varying degrees Of temperature. or
the unequal distribution of heat
Indeed, it is difficult to find any thing
in the mineral kingdom connected
with mineral veins that is not due
either directly or Indirectly to heat.
We cannot fully comprehend the
difference between minerals and
vegetables, both of which are the
products of nature, formed out of
similar material by heat as one Of
the elements of their conditions, until
we regard the line that separates the
vegetable and mineral kingdoms, to
be the line that separates between the
products of solar and TERRESTRIAL heat.
He quotes authorities showing that
the temperature increases two de-
grees every hundred feet in depth,
and at twenty-five miles from the
surface it is hot enough to melt iron,
and says that the passage of heat
through this strata to the surface
produces the complicated phenomena
of mineral strata and mineral veins.
OUR ORE DEPOSITS.
Mineral veins are always associated
with lines Of physical disturbance in
the earth's crust. They may be
mountain ranges, or more gentle
elevations. They may be dykes of
igneous rocks, or lines of fracture in
the earth's crust but always lines of
physical disturbance of less or greater
intensity. 1t has been said that the
Wisconsin lead districts were an
exception to this rule. Our ore de-
posits are invariably connected with
fissures-first group of parallel
tissures Of from five to ten feet apart,
called by miners range, and there
Is an indisputable relation between
this group Of assures and the ore
deposit.
This single group Of assures, Cor
range) is only one of group OF
ranges extending every way, and
forming what is called mining dis
trict In the centre of this district
VIC i0b SSr alo near GhCD Ol06F. dUu
rich, away from the centre the ranges
become scareer and not so rich, and
another fact, this group of ranges, OF
mining district, is bounded on the
east, west, north and south by barren
ground.
A MINERAL BELT.
Beyond this are other and appars
emily similar mining districts, a:
though they were arranged in ar
east and west line. If this is fact
it is an important one, and a new
discovery. But before we accept il
as fact let Us submit it to a rigid
test:
To do this let us go to the south.
west corner of The State, where these
mining districts commence, and drive
dow a stake at FairplaY, and another
or 5 miles to the north, at James
town. And now let us draw two
lines from these stakes east or little