Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/551

Rh MISSOURI 525 including the shells found in great quantities in the bluff and remains of the mastodon and many trees and plants. Below this formation, resting upon the drift, is the bluff. This rests upon the ridges and river bluffs, and thus is topographically higher, although geologically lower, than the bottom prairie. It is composed chiefly of a grey siliceous marl, coloured sometimes to a deep brown or red by the stains of oxide of iron. This formation extends along the bluffs of the Missouri from Fort Union to its mouth, and is found capping those of the Mississippi from Dubuque to the mouth of the Ohio. It is sometimes 200 feet thick; at St Joseph it is 140, at Booneville 100, at St Louis 50, in Marion county only 30 feet. This forma tion has interesting fossils (Elephas primigenius, &amp;lt;fcc.). The drift, the lowest of the Quaternary system, appears in the altered drift, the boulder formation, made up largely of the igneous and rnetamorphic rocks, with rocks from the Palaeozoic strata upon which the others rest. Large boulders, five or six feet in diameter, are found, usually of granite or meta- morphic sandstone; no fossils except a few logs in the altered drift have been found in this formation. The Tertiary formation in Missouri is composed of clays, shales, iron ores, sandstone, and sand, and extends along the bluffs and bottoms of the south-east part of the State. Iron ore is found in this formation in great abundance ; sand of the best quality for glass-making and clays for pottery and stoneware also abound. Below the Tertiary bed are found rocks which strongly resemble Cretaceous beds found in other places in the United States. These strata are in such a state of irregularity and disturbance as to indicate the occurrence of some great movements after their deposition and before the formation of the Tertiary strata. The Upper Carboniferous system, or coal measures, made up of sand stone, limestone, marl, coal, and iron ores, covers an area of more than 23,000 square miles in Missouri, occupying the western and northern portions of the State. The supply of bituminous and cannel coals found here would seem to be well-nigh inexhaustible. In the Lower Carboniferous rock are found many varieties of limestone and sandstone. Among these are the Upper Archimedes Limestone, 200 feet; Ferruginous Sandstone, 195 feet; Middle Archimedes Limestone, 50 feet ; St Louis Limestone, 250 feet. The Devonian system is represented by limestone in Marion, Rails, Pike, Callaway, Saline, and Ste Genevieve counties, among which occur the Chouteau Limestone, 85 feet ; Lithographic Limestone, 125 feet; Onondaga Limestone, 100 feet. Of the Upper Silurian series are the following formations : Lower Helderberg, 350 feet; Niagara Group, 200 feet ; Cape Girardeau Limestone, 60 feet. Prominent among the Lower Silurian formations are the Trenton Limestone, 360 feet; the Black River and Bird s Eye Limestone ; and the Magnesian series. The last-named series is valuable both in a scientific and an economic sense. It covers much of the southern and south-eastern portions of the State, and in it are found vast deposits of lead, zinc, copper, cobalt, iron ores, and marble. The Archaean rocks occur below the Silurian deposits, and contain siliceous and other slates in which no fossils are found. The porphyry rocks of this formation also contain iron ores. Coal. The exposed coal in Missouri includes upper, middle, and lower measures. In the first are about 4 feet of coal, and the area of exposure is about 8400 square miles. The middle coal measures contain about 7 feet of coal, and cover an exposed area of about 2000 square miles. The lower measures have five workable seams, varying from IS inches in thickness to 4A feet, and also some thin seams of only a few inches. In 1880 556,304 bushels of bitu minous coal were raised in thirty-five counties of Missouri, the value at the pit mouth being $1,060,225. $642,772 were paid in wages to 2599 persons. The Missouri coal mines are easily worked. Iron. The iron ores are red hematite, red oxide, specular iron, brown hematite or limonite, and clay ironstone. Manganiferous and siliceous specular ores occur in the porphyries of the Archaean rocks, and in the granites. The greatest exposure of specular iron yet dis covered is Iron Mountain, the purest mass or body of iron ore known. Analysis shows it to contain from 65 to 69 per cent, of metallic iron. The ore of Shepherd Mountain is not so rich as that of Iron Moun tain, but is uniform in character, free from sulphur and phosphoric acid and on the whole superior to any other yet developed in Missouri. Pilot Knob ore gives 53 to 60 per cent, metallic iron, and has few deleterious substances. It is line-grained, light bluish grey in colour. The ore of the Scotia iron banks and Iron Ridge are much alike in appearance and character, being specular boulders imbedded in soft red haematite. In some of these boulders are cavities in which the ore has taken botryoidal form, and upon these peroxide of iron crystallizations are so formed that a gorgeous show of prismatic colours is presented. The above are the chief deposits of iron ores, but limonites are found mostly in the southern parts of the State. The counties of Ste Genevieve, Madison, St Francois, Capo Girar deau, Bollinger, Wayne, Stoddard, Wasliington, Reynolds, Shan non, Carter, and Ripley have the greatest exposures of these ores, although they are found in many others. The supply of iron ores is, indeed, practically inexhaustible. Lead. Second only to iron among the metals of Missouri is the vast deposit of lead found in the southern parts of the State. The great disseminated lead region occupies about one-half of the north ern portion of Madison, and about as much of St Frai^ois county. It is in the magnesian limestone that the largest quantities have been found. In Franklin county galena is found in abundance in ferruginous clay and coarse gravel. In the great mammoth mine in Washington county is a succession of caves in which millions of pounds of lead were found adhering to the sides and roofs. The central lead district of the State comprises the counties of Cole, Cooper, Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Benton, Maries, Camden, and Osage ; the southern lead region the counties of Pulaski, Laclede, Texas, Wright, Webster, Douglass, Ozark, and Christian. The western lead district includes the counties of Hickory, Dallas, Polk, St Clair, Cedar, and Dade ; the south-western the counties of Jasper, Newton, Lawrence, Stone, Barry, and M Donald. The two counties Jasper and Newton produce fully one-half of the pig lead of Missouri. The lead mines of Granby are among the best- known in the State, and millions of pounds of lead have been taken from these lands. Copper deposits have been found in several counties, chiefly in the south-western part of the State. Zinc is found, in the shape of sulphuret and also silicate of zinc, in nearly all the lead mines in south-western Missouri. It has often occurred in such masses as seriously to hinder mining operations, and until very recent years, when railroad facilities have given this ore a market, it was thrown aside as worthless. It is now an important and profitable adjunct of the lead mines of Missouri. Cobalt and nickel are found at Mine La Motte and in a few other places. Silver is found in small quan tities in lead mines in Madison county, combined with the lead. Clays for the manufacture of ordinary brick for building purposes and for fire-brick exist in quantities beyond computation, and kaolin has been found in a few places. Marble of various shades and qualities abounds in Missouri, and is an important item in its mineral wealth. Limestones and sandstones suitable for building purposes are found in many parts of the State. Agriculture. Indian corn, wheat, oats, and tobacco are the staple products ; but cotton, hemp, and flax are also raised to some extent in the southern counties. The average yield of wheat to the acre is 30 bushels, and that return is often far exceeded. No flour is of a higher quality or more in demand in foreign as well as home markets than that made from Missouri wheat. Indian corn is especially used in fattening live stock. Blue grass, timothy, red-top, and red and white clover grow luxuriantly, and favour stock-raising. In some parts of the State pasturage can be had all the year round, and the cheapness of corn makes the raising of pork, in particular, a very profitable business. All varieties of fruit can be very suc cessfully cultivated. The more tender fruits, such as apricots, nec tarines, figs, and many dioice kinds of grapes, grow here as well as the more northern fruits the apple, the pear, the plum, and the cherry. Apples and peaches do well in all parts of the State. Six native varieties of grapes are found in luxuriant growth, and many cultivated varieties have been successfully introduced. No State, not even California, can hope ultimately to rival Missouri in the production of both red and white wines. Sheep-raising lias proved remunerative in the southern counties chiefly, where the mild cli mate, the fine grasses, and the abundance of good water are especially favourable to this branch of agricultural industry. There are in Missouri, in round numbers, 10,000,000 acres of improved and 13,000,000 of unimproved land, including 9,000,000 acres of wood land. The cash value of the farms is estimated at $90,000,000. In 1880 there were on the farms in the State 667,776 horses, 192,027 mules and asses, 9020 oxen, 661,405 cows, 1,410,507 other cattle, 1,411,298 sheep, and 4,553,123 swine. Missouri is the fourth maize-producing State of the Union ; it supplies more wine than any State except California, and is a rival of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and Maryland in the culture of tobacco, which is a