tion from the action of surface waters, the sul
phide oxidizing to sulphate and being completely
removed in solution. Thus no calamine or smith
sonite are formed and siliceous gangue rock re
mains, a cellular mass, showing casts of the dis
solved blende crystals. In the center of the ore
bed and surrounded on all sides by partially de
composed ore, is a flat opening three to four feet
wide, six inches to a foot in height, and filled
completely with the white zinc sulphide.
When taken from the mine this substance is
soft, full of water, and resembles in appearance
and consistency white lead ground in oil.
It has a very slight reddish cast, probably from
a little ferric oxide. Some red tallow clays over
lie the deposit.
In a shaft about 250 feet distant, near the
same level, a much larger body has been exposed
in the floor of the workings. This mass of sul
phide of zinc has not been developed, but is at
least four feet in thickness and extends for a dis
tance of thirty feet.
Evidences point to quite an extensive body of
this peculiar ore of zinc in this mine.
An analysis made by the St. Louis Sampling
and Testing Works shows the following composi
tion of the dried sample:
Insoluble matter..
Zinc
Sulphur,
Ferric Oxide,
The water which was contained in the original
sample, bottled on the ground, showed a slight
amount of sulphuric acid.
The sulphide was evidently formed since the
deposition of the ore by the precipitation of the
sulphate of zinc, resulting from the oxidation of
ordinary blende by sulphureted hydrogen or an
alkaline sulphide. No odor of sulphureted hydro
gen was perceptible in the mine nor was any
found in the water which saturated this sulphide
of zinc. This mineral has never, it is believed,
been met with before, the conditions which would
thus imitate the reactions of laboratory not
THE FR
03.70
30.77
2.40
EE LANCE.
being common in nature. —American Journal of
Science.
CAUSE OF THE RAPID GROWTH OF
THE UNITED STATES.
Truly can we say that the growth of the United
States has been rapid. By going back but little
more than a century we find this country com
prising a collection of disunited provinces, having
no government which they might call their own,
but ruled by one of the greatest powers of Europe
and possessing together a population of less than
four millions of people.
After the Revolutionary War had closed and the
vital question on which our liberties to-day so
much depend was settled and the Constitution
adopted, then the United States began a career
of growth and prosperity which has never had a
parallel on the pages of recorded history. The
lands to the south and west were gradually taken
up and settled, and the commercial and manufac
turing industries began to be developed with won
derful energy.
This, however, is not the only direction in
which this country made advancement. Rapid
progress was also made in the arts and sciences
and in the development of institutions of learn
ing all over the land,
In the lapse of a hundred years the nation has
increased from four to sixty-two millions of peo
ple, and has risen from a state of comparative in
significance to that of the grandest, most enlight
ened and prosperous nation on the face of the earth.
Our great internal resources have developed to
such a degree that the whole country has been
converted into one vast emporium, to which near
ly all the nations of the earth have come to trade
and carry on commercial intercourse. The culti
vation of art, science and literature has been so
assiduously maintained that their results have been
clearly seen in many of the greatest inventions of
the nineteenth century. Nowhere, perhaps, has
H faen rqore manifest than in the great Rebellion,