Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-12-05

Among the mining interests just now show
ing signs of early and profitable development
IN Maine. not the least in importance is that
connected with tin. The country has no
lack Of mines Of gold, silver. copper and lead !:
and If any failure should occur in Maine, it
is not likely that many besides their particu-
lar owners would be conscious of the de-
ficiency. Nor is it likely that any great and
radical effect would be brought upon the gen.
eral industries of the country, should the
yield of these metals in Maine prove as gen.
| erous as the most enthusiastic miners autici-
pate.
With tin the case is different. For that
metal we are obliged to go abroad, chiefly to
England. and SO long as England controls the
market for tin, there is little hope of our
wrestling from her the large traffic in tin
plate. The development of tin mining at
home to a degree sufficient to secure the
practical independence of our vast industries
employing tin and timed iron would be much
more to the country, indirectly if not direct
", than any mine Of gold or silver. Accord
ingly it may be safely said that the announce
ment Of the discovery Of extremely promis-
ing deposits of tin ore in Maine is likely to
awaken heartier interest throughout the
country than other mining reports from that
land of mining booms. If any of Names
mineral products fail, it is sincerely to be
hoped that the failure will not be in tin.
Indications oftin were discovered in Maine
some ten years ago, but then it was the pop
ular belief that Maine was not nor ever could
be a mining State. Recent explorations in
the town of Winslow, on the Kennebec. a few
miles above the State capital, have discov-
cred half dozen metallic veins of rich tin
ore, in a rock formation precisely like those
in which tin is found in Cornwall, Germany,
and New South Wales.
As described by professor c. II. Hitchcock.
the rock which incloses the tin ores of Win
slow, is a mica schist or killas associated
with somewhat calcareous layers, and ada
! cent to hard quartzits band, called an eiran
by miners. Thirty feet width of vertical
sheets of killas show twelve granite veins
from half of one inch to three inches in width,
crossed occasionally by stragglers. The
veins are full of crystals of tin (cassiterite)
with the associated minerals feldspar, mar
CARTE, mispickel, beryl, lepidolit etc. The
mineral geological and physical features of
the Winslow mine are. Prof. Hitchcock adds
identical with those common to the stan
ferrous districts of Europe" and the ore
seems to be sufficiently abundant to remuner-
ate quite extensive OUTLAWS for mining opera
tons.
Professor Forest Shepherd described the
mineralized belt at Winslow as from thirty
to forty or more feet in width. In shallow
pit where it has been uncovered five or more
| veins appear within q space of eight feet, a
promise unequalled in any Cornwall or Sax
ony mine. And what is particularly encOur-
aging, the Winslow deposits are, at the sur
face, equal in quality, Professor Shepherd
saws TO the best in Cornwall, and in a series
of veins most favorably situated, while in
Cornw all and elsewhere the veins are rarely
| remunerative except at great depths.
company has been formed to develop the
Winslow mine and to extend the exploration
for tin in parts of the State. The prospect
of success is. to say the least very encourag-
ing. Should the yield prove abundant par
ticularly favorable opportunity would seem
to offer for the manufacture Of tin plate in
that State, owing to the abundance Of suita-
BILE iron ore and the proximity of forests for
supplying the charcoal required to smelt it.