Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas Part 18

30. MICA. In the granitical, or primitive district, at the sources of the St. Francis. The great body of these rocks is a sienite, or sienitic granite, or greenstone. Like the northern granitical tracts, the mica is generally replaced by hornblende. The folia, usually, are small.

31. FELDSPAR. With the preceding. The great bulk of these granitical formations consists of red feldspar. Where the greenstone becomes porphyritic, the feldspar is a light green.

32. HORNBLENDE. With the preceding. This mineral a.s.sumes its crystalline form, in large areas of the sienite rock. With the two preceding minerals, mica and feldspar, and common quartz, it const.i.tutes the mountain peaks of that remarkable district. It is the only locality, except the Was.h.i.+ta hills, where these formations rise to an elevation above the great metalliferous sandstone, and carbonaceous deposits of the central area of the Mississippi valley, south of the Sauk rapids, above St. Anthony's falls, and the head-waters of the St. Peter's, or Minnesota river. The latter const.i.tute the northern limits of the great horizontal, sedimentary, semi-crystallized rocks west of the Alleghanies.

33. GREENSTONE PORPHYRY. With the preceding.

34. PUDDINGSTONE. In the tongue of land formed by the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, directly beneath the alluvial lands at the old site of fort Ma.s.sac, and at the village called "America." Also, in large, broken blocks, along the west sh.o.r.es of the Mississippi, near the "chalk banks," so called, in Cape Girardeau county, and at Cape Garlic, on the west banks of the Mississippi.

33. NATIVE ALUMINE--WHITE, FRIABLE, PURE CLAY. At the head of Tiawapeta bottom, Little Chain of Rocks, west banks of the Mississippi, Cape Girardeau county, Missouri. This remarkable body of white earth is locally denominated chalk, and was thus called in the first edition of this catalogue. It is employed as a subst.i.tute for chalk, but is found to contain no carbonic acid, and is dest.i.tute of a particle of calcia.

It appears, from Mr. Jessup,[18] to be nearly pure alumine. The traveller, on ascending the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio, pa.s.ses through a country of alluvial formation, a distance of thirty-five miles. Here the first high land presents itself on the west bank of the river, in a moderately elevated ridge, running from south-east to north-west, and terminating abruptly in the bank of the river, which here runs nearly at right angles with the ridge, and has been worn away by the action of the water. This ridge consists of secondary limestone, overlying a coa.r.s.e reddish sandstone, which, at the lowest stage of the water in summer, is seen in huge misshapen fragments, at the immediate edge of the water, and at intervals nearly half way across the river, as well as on the Illinois sh.o.r.e. The mineral occurs in ma.s.s, abundantly. It is nearly dry, of a perfectly white color, and chalky friability. It embraces ma.s.ses of hornstone, resembling flint. It also occurs at a higher point on the same sh.o.r.e, two miles below the Grand Tower.

34. PLASTIC WHITE CLAY. Gray's mine, Jefferson county, Mo.

35. OPWAGUNITE[19]--GEOGNOSTIC RED CLAY. Prairie des Couteau, between the sources of the St. Peter's river and the Missouri. It exists in lamellar ma.s.ses, beneath secondary ma.s.ses. It is of a dull red color, is soft, compact, easily cut, and is a material much employed and valued by the Indians for carving pipes, and sometimes neck ornaments.

Occasionally it has brighter spots of pale red. It is also found on the Red Cedar, or Folle Avoine branch of Chippewa river, Wisconsin, of a darker color, approaching to that of chocolate. It is polished by the Indians with rushes.

III. COMBUSTIBLES.

36. SULPHUR. In flocculent white deposits, in a spring, Jefferson county, Missouri.

37. MINERAL COAL. Bituminous, slaty coal, const.i.tutes a very large geological basin in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, where it appears to have resulted from the burial of ancient forests. At Pittsburgh, I found it composing thick strata in elevated grounds, on the south banks of the Monongahela river. In an excursion up that stream, it characterizes its banks at intervals for forty miles. It inflames easily, burns with a pitchy smoke and bituminous smell, and throws out a great heat. It occurs in veins in limestone, along with argillaceous slate, indurated clay, red sandstone, and bituminous shale, which are arranged in alternate strata, one above the other, preserving an exact parallelism with the waters of the Alleghany, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. The coal always const.i.tutes a vein between the shale and clay which are found immediately above and below it. The clay appears to have originated from the decomposition of shale; for it may be observed in all stages of the decomposition, from a well-characterized argillaceous slate, to plastic clay.

The veins of coal are from a foot to nine feet in thickness, and the strata of coal, shale, limestone, &c., are repeated; so that the sides of the hills which afford coal, exhibit several strata, with the rock intervening, one above another. The greatest distance, in a perpendicular direction, from one stratum to another, is perhaps one hundred feet; and such is the regularity of the coal formation in this region, that the description of one pit, or bed, will apply almost equally to any other within a circuit of two hundred miles, every section of which is characterized by coal. Sometimes pyrites of a tin-white color are found mixed among the coal. In Missouri, it occurs at Florrisant.

38. GRAPHITE--PLUMBAGO. Twelve miles south of Potosi, Was.h.i.+ngton county, Mo., in a large body.

39. SULPHURET OF LEAD.

a. _Galena._ One of the most remarkable formations of this ore in America, if not in the world, is furnished by the metalliferous limestones of the Mississippi. Of these, Missouri furnishes one of the most celebrated localities. These mines were first explored by the renowned Mississippi Company, in 1719, and have continued to be worked during the successive changes which it has experienced under the French, Spanish, and Americans, to the present period. The number of mines now wrought is about fifty, and the quant.i.ty of lead annually smelted is estimated at three millions of pounds. The ore is the common galena, with a broad glittering grain, and bluish-gray color, and is found accompanied by sulphate of barytes, blende, pyrites, quartz, and calcareous spar. It yields, on a.s.say, eighty-two per cent. of metallic lead, the remainder being chiefly sulphur. (Vide "View of the Lead-Mines.")

b. _Granular Sulphuret of Lead._ Mine La Motte, Madison county, Missouri.

c. _Cobaltic Sulphuret of Lead._ With the preceding.

40. OXIDE OF LEAD. Earthy, yellow. Wythe county, Virginia.

41. CARBONATE OF LEAD. Lead-mines of Missouri. It occurs in some of the mines as a crust, or thin layer, on ores of galena.

42. SULPHURET OF ZINC. In the form of black blende. Lead-mines of Missouri.

43. OXIDE OF ZINC. Earthy, grayish-white. In the mineral called "dry-bone." Missouri lead-mines.

44. IRON.

a. _Iron Glance._ In the Iron Mountain and Pilot k.n.o.b, on the sources of the river St. Francis, Missouri. It occurs in vast ma.s.ses, granular, and sometimes specular, without iridescence. Also, on White river, Arkansas.

b. _Micaceous Oxide of Iron._ Sources of the St. Francis river, Missouri. A vein of this ore, several feet wide, is found in red sienite, on the banks of the river St. Francis, at the Narrows, Madison county, Missouri Territory. Its unusual appearance has for several years attracted the attention of the inhabitants. It is situated four miles south of the extensive lead-mines of La Motte, and in the centre of a highly interesting geological and mineralogical section of country. The rocks at that place are the old red granite and sienite, in mountain ma.s.ses, with veins of greenstone, greenstone porphyry, and gneiss.

c. _Red Oxide of Iron._ Flint river, Tennessee.

d. _Brown Haemat.i.te._ On the dividing ridge between Strawberry and Spring rivers, Arkansas.

e. _Argillaceous Oxide of Iron--Ironstone._ Banks of the Monongahela, Pennsylvania.

f. _Sulphuret of Iron._ Accompanying the ores and vein-stones of the Missouri lead-mines.

g. _Magnetic Oxide of Iron._ Fifteen miles below the Hot Springs, on the Was.h.i.+ta river, Arkansas. In quant.i.ty.

45. BLACK OXIDE OF MANGANESE. On Big Sandy river, Kentucky.

Also, on the sources of the Maramec and Spring rivers, Missouri, accompanied by the brown oxide of iron.

46. NATIVE COPPER. Scattered ma.s.ses of this metal have been found on Big river, and also in a shaft sunk near Harrisonville, Illinois. Nothing, however, is known in America, to equal the vast quant.i.ties of this metal found in the trap veins on the banks of lake Superior.

47. SULPHATE OF COPPER. On the Was.h.i.+ta river, fifteen miles below the Hot Springs, Arkansas.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Long's Expedition.

[19] From "opwaguu," (Algonquin) a pipe; and "lithos," (Gr.) a stone.

CATALOGUE OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, (CONTINUED.)

OCTOBER, 1819.

1. Sulphate of lime. Arkansas.

2. Sulphuret of lead, in quartz. Was.h.i.+ngton county, Mo.

3. Agate, from Persia. Brought by Captain Austin.

4. Serpentine. Derby, Conn.

5. Galena upon crystallized quartz. Missouri.

6. Limpid quartz. Hot Springs, Arkansas.

7. Striped agate. St. Genevieve county, Mo.

8. Sienite. Persia.

9. Silicious breccia. Illinois.