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The next important series of limestones that make up most of the central portion of Missouri are of Silurian age, and in them lead and zinc are liberally scattered over large areas. In the residual surface clays left by dissolution of the limestone, the farmers frequently make low wages by gophering after the liberated lead, and the aggregate of these numerous though insignificant gopher-holes makes quite a respectable total. But they are only worked when there is nothing else to do on the farm, as with rare exceptions they do not yield living wages, and the financial results of mining the rock are even less satisfactory. Yet a few small orebodies have been found that were undoubtedly formed by local leaching and re-precipitation of this diffused lead and zinc. Such orebodies occur in openings or caves, with well crystallized forms of galena and blende, and invariably associated with crystallized “tiff” or barite. I am not aware of any of these pockets or secondary enrichments having produced as much as 2000 tons of lead or zinc, and very few have produced as much as 500 tons, although one of these pockets was recently exploited with heroic quantities of printer’s ink as the largest lead mine in the world. Yet there are large areas in which it is almost impossible to put down a drill-hole without finding “shines” or trifling amounts of lead or zinc. That these central Missouri lead deposits are due to lateral secretion there seems little doubt, and it is possible that larger pockets may yet be found where more favorable conditions occur.

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