[467] - Passing from the main railway terminus, the visitor observes on his left a building of elaborate design, the purpose of which is indicated by the single work inscribed above its portal. In this, the hall of Mines and Mining, its architect, S. S. Beman, of Chicago, has departed somewhat from conventional types, displaying, without any detraction from his harmony of plan, an adaptation of structural forms to practical uses in perfect keeping with what may be termed the sentiment of his composition. Fronting on the main court opposite the great hall of Machinery; flanked on one side by its sister edifice devoted to the Electrical department; on another by the Transportation pavilion, and with the graceful lines of the Administration building giving further emphasis to this imposing group, Mr. Beman was thus favored with one of the choicest sites in the Exposition grounds, and to the best advantage has he improved his opportunity.

First of all it may be observed that in studying his design the artificer must prepare for the housing of a large and bulky display of ores and minerals, of mining and metallurgical machinery and appliances, many of them requiring a liberal proportion of floor room and height. Hence, in this building, and especially in its central nave, it was necessary to avoid, as far as possible, all columnar obstructions, leaving unencumbered the greatest available area for the reception of exhibits. Of the space at his disposal, including with galleries somewhat less than nine acres, a large portion was devoted to a nave 630 feet long, in its centre a circular court from which the main avenues radiate, and where is a design typical of mining industries. In all this spacious nave there are only sixteen pillars, eight on either side, and on which rests the system of cantilever trusses that support a lowered roof, fashioned largely of glass, and at its highest point nearly 100 feet from the floor. The aisles, which divide the building into four main sections, are similarly treated, and with their columns anchored against the inner rows. Thus is relieved the comparative depression of the curtain walls, whose height from ground to cornice is little more than sixty feet.

A further accentuation is given by the principal entrances, one in the centre of each of the four sides, those on the north and south 80 feet wide, with richly decorated cornices, and flanked by pilasters, on which rest banner staves, their flags imparting to the outline somewhat of a holiday appearance, and modifying the serious aspect of the design. Around all the entrances are monuments, designs, and figures in keeping with the exhibits contained within. At the corners are square pavilions, lighted by arched windows on either face, and with low domical roofs crowned with circular lanterns. Between these pavilions and the main portals are piazzas 25 feet wide, with coffered ceilings, and from which there is access to the interior at several points. From either side of the entrance-halls broad stairways lead to windowed galleries, 60 feet wide, and affording an additional floor space of more than 100,000 square feet. Thence, from numerous openings, the visitor may step forth into recessed balconies, from portions of which is an excellent view of the structures and grounds adjacent.

In the elaboration of his design the architect has not adopted any special order of architecture, for in doing so he could not have given to his scheme an architectural expression in conformity with the character of the exhibits. The facades are of modern style; the roof planned somewhat after the fashion of those which cover the car-building sheds of the Pullman company. Elsewhere, and especially in the entablatures, are traces [468] of Italian detail, mingled with that of the French renaissance, while in the loggias and balconies the treatment savors of the Doric and the earlier Romanesque. Finally it may be said that, whether from an architectural or utilitarian point of view, the hall of Mines and Mining does not suffer by comparison with its more imposing neighbors.

As with the Fisheries and several other departments, this is the first of our great world�s fairs at which mining has been placed on an equality with manufactures, agriculture, and all the more prominent industrial pursuits, and its exhibits ranked on a par with any, and housed in a building of their own. At the London and Paris expositions all such specimens were classed in a single group, to which was granted but a meagre allotment of space; and even at our own Centennial Exposition they were pushed aside into an annex of the industrial edifice. Here, however, due prominence is given to an industry which in value of production ranks third among those of the United States, many of its branches, before incorporated in other divisions, for the first time receiving in their proper place a fitting and adequate representation.

Says the chief of this department, referring to the scope and character of the exhibits: "They will cover the entire range of the mineral kingdom. They will include minerals of every kind, ores, native metals, gems, and crystals; geological specimens; coal, coke, petroleum, natural gas, building stones, and quarry products; graphite, limestone, cement, and artificial stone; salts, sulphur, fertilizers, and mineral waters; the long catalogue of iron and steel, and of tin, and the new metal, aluminum; the extraction of gold, silver, and lead by various methods; mining machinery, tools, and appliances; literature, models, and reproductions. When we consider the wealth represented by the quarries of New York and the New England states, the coal and iron of the Alleghanies, the phosphates of Florida and the Gulf, the oil and gas of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the copper of Lake Superior and the tin of the Black Hills, the silver and lead of the Rocky mountains and the gold of California; with the immense manufacturing interests connected with the production and manipulation of our country�s vast mineral wealth, remembering that there come into competition with her all countries and quarters of the globe, the varied and exceptional character of the mines and mining display will be appreciated."

On entering the hall which contains these exhibits, the first question the visitor asks himself is "How did they get here? How were these mammoth specimens collected and transported from every quarter to be placed in congruous and symmetrical groups under the roof of a single edifice?" Perhaps in no time or place but the present could they have been got together; for years of persistent solicitation and careful planning were required before the bulky articles were rolled [469] on cars to the principal entrance way, to be lifted by cranes and moved on trucks into position. From the spacious central nave, sometimes termed Bullion boulevard, extend eastward the state and territorial pavilions or structural facades in metals or minerals, beyond which is the mining machinery; while to the west our foreign friends show what their several countries can produce. Among United States exhibits Montana�s silver statue, Pennsylvania�s needle of anthracite coal, and the geological obelisk of the empire state attract much attention. Among those of other lands may here be mentioned the elaborate collections of Germany, Mexico, Canada, and New South Wales, and the diamonds which in the spectator�s presence are washed by Kaffirs out of the blue earth imported from Kimberley mines.

On the gallery floor the largest of the individual exhibits are those of the Standard Oil company, and the Frick Coke company, the former displaying the several methods used in the production and distribution of oil, and the latter a model of their plant. Of scientific interest are the metallurgical displays arranged by the chief of the Mining department, and the collections of the Ward Natural Science establishment. In a series of courts are arranged in related groups all mineral substances of industrial, economic, or scientific value, with an assaying department in actual operation. Nor should mention be omitted of the library, catalogued for public use, and containing histories and statistics of mines and mining districts, with numerous charts and diagrams, together with maps and models illustrating the geological formation and distribution of mineral veins, and the modes by which they are worked. To the mining engineer or surveyor the collection is especially valuable, for here are treatises on every branch of his profession, including among others the location of shafts [471] and tunnels, their sinking or boring and timbering, the sloping and hoisting of ore, and the drainage, lighting, and ventilation of mines. Finally, the visitor may compare the present with ancient methods, for there are some of the earliest apparatus used in mining and metallurgy, either as originals or reproductions.

Coal and iron are treated in broad lines; for in the United States these industries represent the investment of hundreds of millions of capital and afford employment to hundreds of thousands of men. Of bituminous coal the annual yield exceeds 100,000,000 tons; of anthracite nearly half as much, and of pig iron about 10,000,000 tons; the total value of their output, the two first as delivered at the mines being estimated at more than $300,000,000. Next in order of value, or very nearly so, are silver, building stones, copper, lime, gold, petroleum, natural gas, lead, and zinc, these and other metals and minerals increasing the total production to about $650,000,000 a year. In the exhibits contained in the Mining hall, quality rather than quantity is the feature of the display; and here the visitor may learn more in this connection than years of travel could teach him. In the coal collections for instance, are not only the varieties produced in different regions, but with many of the specimens are chemical analyses, and the results of tests whereby have been demonstrated their economic value and adaptability to special uses, with geological and other maps and drawings showing stratification, extent, locality, accessibility, and other valuable data. And so with iron and other products, all the groups being arranged and illustrated with special reference to the industries which they represent.

Near the northern portal of the hall, flanked on either side by the pavilions of France and Pennsylvania, is a lofty monument fashioned of cubes, which gradually decrease in size almost to a point. Those at the base are of massive proportions, and on several of them are inscribed the words anthracite, limestone, natural gas, petroleum, iron ore, and granite. Then come salt and other minerals produced in the United States, nearly all of commercial value having a place in the column. In these cubes are represented the proportionate bulk of all the minerals which come from the mines and quarries of this country during one second of time, asbestos forming its tip, gold ore second, and silver ore only a few removes from the top.

Within the entrance of Pennsylvania�s pavilion are displayed her petroleum and petroleum products in hundreds of glass bottles contained in neatly finished show-cases. Facing them is a large relief map of the state, representing the location of her principal coal and iron mines, her oil and natural gas deposits, blast furnaces, pipe systems, and railroads. In a small pavilion are shown the various uses of slate, as for pillars, roofing, walls, and blackboards. On the western side are exhibited in the form of truncated pyramids, grouped in rectangular shape, all the varieties of anthracite, with commercial samples and analyses, while at the corners of the rectangle are samples of bituminous coal. A colored drawing illustrates the manufacture of zinc oxide and spiegeleisen, the latter largely used for the manufacture of Bessemer steel. In bricks and other samples, crude and burned, are shown the many varieties of fire clay found in Pennsylvania, and next to these are tile clays in every form. There are also more than 100 specimens of building stones, with glass sands, the mixtures used for various kinds of glass, and the finished product. Soapstone, nickel, manganese, iron ores, and the several stages in the manufacture of iron, with the charcoal, anthracite, bituminous coal, and coke used for such purposes, are also on exposition.

An interesting exhibit is a complete working model of a coal mine, with engines and the work they do, from hauling coal up the incline until it is dumped into the screen and there assorted into sizes and loaded into railroad cars. Near by is a primitive iron furnace, of a pattern more than 1,000 years old, and grouped about it are rude implements such as Tubal Cain might have used. On the walls are photographs, charts, and maps of geological and mineralogical surveys, with relief maps and other illustrations.

But the most attractive feature is in the central court of the Mining hall, where is the shaft or so-called needle of anthracite already mentioned. This trophy is fashioned of solid blocks of that mineral, extracted from [472] the Mammoth mine of the Lehigh Valley Coal company. It is more than 50 feet high, weighs nearly 100 tons, and to mine and place it in position was the task of many weeks, involving an outlay of several thousand dollars. The entire collection from Pennsylvania is gathered and arranged as a utilitarian rather than an ornamental display, and shows to excellent advantage her rich and manifold resources.

The exhibits of the empire state are also of a substantial character, with no attempt at ornamentation except for the pavilion which contains them, and a pagoda of terra cotta in one of its corners. The former is in the shape of a rectangular colonnade, the entablature resting on Ionic arches springing from pillars of uniform design, and the corners surmounted with handsome balustrades. The cornices and frieze are decorated with sculptured tablets, and the spandrels between the arches are ornamented with representations in relief of mining scenes and implements. In front is an obelisk constructed of rocks in the order of geological succession, the device of the geologist James Hall. Here it may be mentioned that, apart from local collections, this is the only complete exposition that New York has ever attempted of her geological formation and mineral resources, though in this state is found the keynote to the geology of a vast adjacent region.

Among the exhibits are samples of all building, ornamental, and other stones of commercial value, of which the state possesses an abundant store. There are likewise specimens of the solid crystalline salt deposits peculiar to her soil, with clays, gypsum, sands, and shale, the first including kaolin, and displayed in raw and manufactured forms, together with mineral paints, iron ores, and petroleum. A feature in the collection is the beautiful specimens of quartz and fluorite, and on the gallery floor is a large assortment of precious stones and minerals contributed by a New York jewelry firm.

Adjoining the New York section on the east is the New Jersey pavilion, the greater portion of which is devoted to an exposition of her geology, illustrated by a large relief map. Along the walls are cabinet specimens of ores, building stones, and potters� clay, in the last of which the state is especially rich. Her production of zinc is somewhat remarkable�; and here the information is conveyed that of the 1,000,000 tons of ore produced in the United States since 1873, 719,000 were contributed by New Jersey.

Either in the western galleries among the metallurgical groups, or in the eastern galleries among the specimens of building stone, all the New England states are represented with the exception of Rhode Island. From the Colby University of Waterville, Maine; from the Portland society of natural history, and various private sources, are collections of minerals and gems, a quarry company contributing a large urn of polished granite and a variety of smaller specimens. Harvard college sends to the Massachusetts section many rare fossils, large slabs of stone showing the foot-prints of some mammoth of the antideluvian era. Granite and marble, gneiss and hornblende, corundum, emery, and graphite, with an abundance of ores and gems, virtually complete the collection of the old Bay state.

New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut display their granites and marbles in the eastern galleries. In the New Hampshire collection are many specimens of mica, and pillars and a massive table are constructed of the stone for which that state is famous. The granites of Connecticut, principally gray and red, are also the prominent feature of her section. Vermont, while showing several beautiful varieties of granite, upholds her reputation as the producer of some of the best marbles from the quarries of the United States, the specimens being displayed in a circular portico of Grecian architecture. Many of the cases within contain cubes of the best known American varieties, and the famous marble quarries of Rutland contribute largely to the general effect.

One of the most interesting and unique of the scores of pavilion elevations in the Mining hall is that of Kentucky, in the background of which is depictured the entrance to her mammoth cave, while beneath it is reproduced a section of the cave, to which a trap-door affords access. The facade is a temple-like structure [474] of Gothic architecture, and, together with the wide open archway in the centre, is built of cannel coal, its effect increased by contrast with the white marble edifice of the empire state. Its plan was suggested by the portal of the Virginia Military institute in Stonewall Jackson�s native town. While consisting largely of coal, as might be expected from a region with 14,000 square miles of bituminous coal deposits, and with a yearly output of more than 3,000,000 tons, the exhibits of Kentucky are as varied as her resources, and include marble and other valuable stones, tile-clay, copper, iron, gold, and silver, all displayed as minerals, ores, or metals to the best advantage.

Ohio�s section in enclosed by a handsome colonnade, constructed entirely of minerals found within her borders, and intended to present in picturesque form her resources in that direction. One of the passage-ways is fashioned of tiles, and extending over the entire length of the floor space at the northern end are alcoves containing specimens of quartz. In show-cases are mining and mineral samples, and in the centre are models illustrating the manufacture of table salt and the machinery used for pumping oil from Lima�s productive wells. In the galleries Ohio is well represented in the metallurgical exhibits organized by Frederick J. V. Skiff, the chief of the Mining department, and here also are several collections from her university and colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts.

Representing as they do one of the most prolific districts in the production of building stone, the exhibits of Indiana, both in the construction of her pavilion and its contents, are somewhat of a uniform character. The four granite pillars which support the entrance harmonize in coloring with the whitish grey of the limestone, the latter a prominent factor in the mineral wealth of the state. The quarries at Bedford are especially noted, and thence were gathered the bulk of the limestone specimens ranged along the centre of the section. Opposite are large blocks of coal, for which Indiana is famed, both as to quantity and quality of output. Elsewhere are cabinet specimens of building stone, and samples of petroleum oil, brick, tiling, and other clay products, while near the western entrance to the Mining hall is a stately pillar of oolitic limestone from Bedford deposits.

Michigan occupies a place of honor, fronting on the central court, and with the largest space allotted to any of the state exhibits. Among the materials used for her pavilion are specimens of building and ornamental stones, with other mineral taken from Michigan mines and quarries. The archway is of native sandstone, its dome-like interior lines with copper, on which are displayed the mineral products of the state fashioned in the form of shields, with the coat of arms on medallions, and above all an allegorical group representing two miners whom the presiding genius of that industry is crowning with wreaths of laurel.

Fronting on the central nave is a large diagram showing a cross section of a mine operated by the Cleveland Cliffs Iron company, and representing its geological formations, with the system of shafts sunk to three successive levels before the ore body is reached. On two of the interior walls are pictures of the more prominent mines in the upper peninsula, as the Pittsburgh, Barnum, and Salisbury, around which are heaps of timbers and snow-covered piles of ore. The famous Calumet and Hecla mines, and the stone quarries of Marquette, are also reproduced in graphic art; and among scenic views are those of Lake Angeline before its waters were drawn of, and of Todd�s harbor and Isle Royal. One of the exhibiting companies shows the levels of its mine in sheets of glass on which are indicated the locations of drifts and tunnels, while elsewhere are models of machinery, mills, and reduction works.

Michigan�s display of minerals is both interesting and instructive; including specimens of the richest iron ore found within the state. There are samples of gold ore found near Ishpeming, assaying $10,00 to the ton, [475] with silver ores, marble of different kinds and colors, verde antique and serpentine, and granite and whetstones. These specimens are for the most part taken from private collections, as are also graphite, fire and common clay, fire sand, coal, amethyst, agate, and chlorastrolites, the last a beautiful mineral, and found only in Spain and on Isle Royal in Michigan. Among other samples here displayed in profusion may be mentioned red analcimes, abophylites, prehanites, dalholites, stilbites, dolomites, and calcites. Then there are pipe ores, kidney ores, needle iron ore, grape ores, epidotes, and calcite crystals, containing native copper, yet indeed representing but a tithe of the more valuable and useful portion of the collection.

But copper is the main feature in the Michigan section, and in truth the display is a generous one, including native copper, copper ingots, bars, sheets, cakes, and wires; rag, nail and fan copper; ores, conglomerates, and amygdaloids; battery and tailing samples, and copper in what other forms soever it is found or fashioned. The largest mass is of native copper, weighing 8,500 pounds, with others almost as bulky, composed of the richest of ores and conglomerates. In the centre of the pavilion are two mounds of copper, one constructed of wire, at the base of which are sections welded by an electrical process whereby wires can be produced of indefinite length.

Among the more curious exhibits are prehistoric tools found in the mines, fashioned of native copper, and in the form of knives, spear and arrow heads, adzes, and hammers. These are among the state contributions; and no one can tell how they were made, for the metal is hardened and tempered by a process which modern scientists and mechanics have failed as yet to discover. As to this process it can only be said that thousands of inventors have tried in vain to reproduce it, and that to the aborigines of the Lake Superior region was known what is now a lost art, whereby weapons and tools were made such as cannot be duplicated by the most improved of modern methods. Says the official in charge of this exhibit: "It is claimed by several that tempered copper is now being placed on the market; but if the art is ever to be discovered, it has not been achieved so far. I have heard of men who have seen weapons or tools of the aborigines that would turn the edge of a steel chisel or dull a file."

The state which contains the home of the Fair reserves her strength for the machinery department in the Mining hall, and is mentioned in that connection. In Wisconsin�s collection are fully illustrated her abundant mineral resources. Shafts of polished red marble support the arch above the entrance way; at the corners are monoliths of sandstone, and within is a temple-lie structure, its dome upheld by fluted columns with Doric capitals. The floor is of black and white tiling, and the materials for the outside walls were furnished from Bayfield quarries. In the centre of the pavilion is a pagoda, at the corners of which are bars of lead and piles of iron, zinc, and galena ores. In pyramids and other forms are all the economic minerals and metals of Wisconsin, in raw or manufactured forms, including marble and granite; bricks, tiles, and terra cotta; jasper and serpentine; iron, copper, zinc, and lead; brown hematite of ochre, mineral paints, and the sands that are used for the making of glass. From Milwaukee are specimens of the so-called Wisconsin pearls, and from not a few of the exhibitors are entire cabinets of specimens, for many counties have contributed to the display.

Minnesota�s home in the Mining hall is east of the Ohio section, her booth partially enclosed by a bronze fence of scroll-work, and the entrance-way of building stone from her principal quarries. Within is a remarkable display for a state that has but recently attempted mining on any considerable scale. Her principal exhibits are of iron, large contributions coming from the region tributary to Duluth, and including a great variety of specimens. About thirty companies are represented, and the samples shown by each contain not less than 63 percent of metal, while several show nearly 70 percent, a remarkable average considering the extent of territory from which they were taken.

Of iron ores there are many exhibitors, including a carefully selected group of specimens. Of building stones there is a special contribution containing 100 varieties, with samples of bricks and the clays from which they were made. From Duluth is a fine specimen [476] of Lake Superior amethyst weighing 300 pounds. A group of jasper shows the highly polished quartz; another is in the rough, and a third consists of carved figures from stone of a reddish hue. From Sioux valley is also a handsome shaft of jasper polished by hand. Granite is well represented, especially in a pillar and shaft of this material, the latter of the speckled variety from Rockville. There is slate from Cloquet, brown stone from Duluth, and other varieties from various parts of the state. A unique structure is in the form of a mound, its base of Indian pipestone, upon which is a layer of jasper, then several feet of earth, with the greensward for a covering. The lower portion of the mound was quarried from the red pipestone quarries on the national reservation in Minnesota, near Pipe Stone city, and said to be the only quarry of its kind in the world. Since time immemorial the American aborigines have used this substance for their peacepipes which Longfellow has described in his Hiawatha.

Among other features of interest is a model of the Chandler mine at Ely, showing the shaft houses, tools, and mining apparatus, as well as the geographical formation and the different levels, with the process of mining, hoisting, and timbering, and with miners carrying lanterns on their heads. Arranged along the inner walls are charts illustrating the underground plan of the Minnesota mines at Soudon.

Beneath the stairway at the southern end of the Mining hall are the coal pillars of the Iowa pavilion, to which an ornate appearance is given by the judicious use of colored clays and sands. Within are mound so iron, lead, and zinc, a miniature grotto constructed of material gathered from the caves of Dubuque county, and the display of a Centerville coal company, consisting of models of its works and cars, installed upon a platform of coal. There is also shown the interior of a coal mine, with full-sized figures of miners at work, and a truck filled with coal on the track ready to be hauled to the surface. The depth is only twenty-five feet, but by an ingenious device appearing as though it were several hundred feet. The mouth of the pit, over which are the words Iowa Black Diamond Hollow, is surrounded with solid blocks of coal. Adjoining the pavilion proper are cabinets of economic minerals, and a small section in which are shown by a marble company specimens of its stone in raw and manufactured forms.

To Missouri was assigned one of the four sections around the central court, where also are the exhibits of Michigan, Germany, and Great Britain. Her tasteful pavilion, with its handsome portal and colonnade, its decorated frieze and balustrade, is composed almost entirely of materials furnished by the state. The base is of granite from the syenite quarries of southeastern Missouri, the walls of brick from St. Louis county, and the pillars, capitals, and frieze are of terra cotta. At the principal entrance-way are panels of onyx, and the coat of arms above it is surmounted by an eagle, with garlands depending from the shoulders of cupids.

Within this structure are worthily represented the resources of a state which in 1892 produced more than 3,000,000 tons of coal, 131,000 tons of iron ore, of zinc ore almost as much, and 32,000 tons of lead; her yield of these metals for the year being estimated at $9,100,000, and the entire output up to that date at $178,000,000. On tables and in glass-covered show-cases of polished oak are countless labelled specimens, with photographs and models indicating mineral localities and features, and with mineral production and distribution displayed in chart and diagram form. In the centre of the pavilion is a large relief map showing the areas and locations of all the principal deposits of economic minerals. The value of the entire display is further increased by its methodical arrangement, with inscriptions and labels for the various groups of products, and for each of the specimens of which the groups are composed.

While coal, iron, lead, and zinc form the bulk of the display, there are numerous specimens of other metals and minerals, including copper and silver ores; blendes of various kinds; calcites, calamites, dolomites, [477] and siegenites; ochres, glass-sand, clays, and bricks; sandstone, limestone, marble, and granite. Zinc is a special feature in the collection, as befits a state which produces more than one-half of the entire output of the United States. Some of the specimens are remarkable for range and brilliance of coloring; their shades varying, from black to a lightish yellow, while colorless crystals are arranged in tasteful groupings. The mineral is displayed in every shape, beginning with the crude ore as it comes from the mine, and displaying each successive stage up to the completed product in all its commercial forms. Lead is similarly treated, and near a table on which is a 1650-pound mass of zinc ore is a group of nearly perfect cubes of galena weighing 500 pounds, and almost entirely of pure lead from the Joplin mines. In the centre of this section is a pedestal of solid metal formed of specimens from various smelting works throughout the state. At the southeast corner is a pyramid of ore built of specimens ranging from a few pounds to several tons. From Greenfield quarries comes a handsome marble altar, and from St. Louis county, a sample of nickel sulphide, of special interest to mineralogists.

Arkansas, Missouri�s geographical neighbor, occupies only a few square feet of space in the extreme southwestern corner of the hall, among the exhibits of Latin-American republics. There the state is represented by a small collection of minerals, consisting mainly of carbonates of zinc.

Upon the frieze of South Dakota�s tasteful pavilion is the inscription: "First in gold mining machinery, first in new mines, and second in gold." In support of this claim are exhibited some remarkable specimens of gold ore, though perhaps more noteworthy is the collection of tin ores from Harney peak. Coal if but feebly represented; for the extensive deposits of South Dakota have as yet been little utilized. In the rear of this section are two life-size figures carved in sandstone, one of a pioneer prospector, and the other of a prosperous, well-dressed citizen of the present day. Among the attractions are also petrified woods from the neighborhood of Sioux Falls, and a tower of Portland cement from a Yankton manufacturer.

The Kansas section in the north of the hall corresponds to that of Iowa in the south, but is of smaller extent. Briefly, lead and zinc ores, metallic lead and zinc, rock salt and gypsum comprise the exhibit, among which are several fine specimens of galena lead, displayed at the entrance-way. Among the collective exhibits in the east gallery are also samples of Kansas cement, and of golden ochre from the Saline river.

The most striking feature in the section allotted to West Virginia is the exhibits of coal, specimens of which are seen at every hand and in all sizes and shapes. This is as it should be, since, both in actual production and in deposits still undeveloped, the state occupies a foremost rank. As is also evident from this display one of the most prominent industries is the manufacture of coke, while petroleum, both crude and refined, calls attention to another source of wealth. Building stones, fire clays, hydraulic limestone, and glass sand are here on exposition, with a refuse substance from a glass factory known as mineral wool which, in appearance and fire-proof qualities, is little inferior to asbestos. In the picturesque mountains of West Virginia are numerous mineral springs whose waters possess valuable medicinal properties, and of these there are a few samples among the more substantial collections.

With the exception of West Virginia, the exhibits of the southern states are installed in the northeastern section of the hall, adjoining the department of machinery. North Carolina has the most elaborate display, and along one side of it are groups of limestone, white, blue, gray, and mottled marble, gray and pink granite, and gray and brown sandstone. In cases arranged along the section walls are many specimens of gold, both free and in the ore, with smaller collections of iron, tin, copper, silver, and coal. Sapphires, garnets, emeralds, smoky quartz, and other gems and crystals are shown, together with such useful products as kaolin, fire-clay, graphite, and talc, the last especially valuable in the manufacture of pencils. In crystalline and silicious forms are numerous [478] samples of corundum, which serves as the basis of many preparations used by dentists and opticians, and also by workers in metal, for grinding, abrading, and polishing their goods. The mica deposits of North Carolina furnish an interesting collection, and the exhibit is diversified by a number of large photographs displaying various localities which nature has enriched with mineral deposits.

In Virginia�s section, one of the most attractive features is the picturesque scenery along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway, depictured in the background. Among the exhibits proper the most remarkable are two large masses of iron ore and coal, the former of which is the nearest approach to steel that nature has made, while the latter is a coking and almost smokeless variety, and combines more desirable qualities than any that have yet been mined. In the North Carolina collection are specimens of zinc, lead, and tin ores, the ores from which mineral paint is made, and granite, slate, and other building and ornamental stones.

Between the New Jersey and Minnesota pavilions a small section is jointly occupied by Louisiana and Tennessee. The latter presents a few specimens of iron, coal, building stones, and the clays used in the manufacture of bricks and tilings. Louisiana occupies the greater part of the space, and of special interest are the exhibits of chalk kaolin, and the clays used by the potter and the maker of imitation meerschaum pipes. There are also a few samples of iron, gold, and silver ores, of sandstones and whetstones, and of soda and potash; but the most striking exhibits are of fine, coarse, and rock salt, one of them representing a figure of Lot�s wife standing in the foreground.

Except for a shaft of semi-bituminous coal at one of the western approaches to the Mining hall, and erected by a manufacturer of mining machinery, Maryland is without representation in this department. South Carolina and Florida find expression in the eastern galleries, especially in their lavish display of phosphates, the one from the Palmetto state being mainly contributed by mining and manufacturing companies of Charleston. Among them is crude phosphate rock, mined both from the river beds and the dry soil, together with strange forms of fossil life. From Florida are also samples of phosphates, both in its crude state and prepared as a fertilizer, the exhibit being arranged in a frame of native woods which shows the geographical outlines of the state.

[479] - Before describing the exhibits of the Pacific slope, whence comes our main supply of the precious metals, a few remarks may be of interest as to the relative yield of gold and silver, and the conditions evolved thereby. Of the total output of the United States, amounting for the century ending with 1892, to nearly $2,000,000,000 in gold and $1,2000,000,000 in silver, less than one percent was produced between 1792 and 1847. Then came the discovery of Marshall, who was about to throw away as iron pyrites a handful of what proved to be scales and nuggets of gold, picked up near the historic saw-mill in Coloma valley. In the single year of 1849 more gold was taken from the earth than during the half century which preceded it, production gradually increasing until in 1853 it reached its maximum value of $65,000,000, gradually diminishing to less than $40,000,000 in 1862.

Meanwhile the Comstock lode had revealed its treasures, and from an average of less than 40,000 ounces for many previous years, the total output of silver rose to 6,600,000 ounces in 1863, gaining in volume, though with many fluctuations, until for 1892 it was estimated at 58,000,000 ounces, for the waning yield of Nevada mines had been more than compensated by the product of Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and other Pacific slope states. This was attended with a corresponding shrinkage in value, the price of silver in New York and London falling from $1.14 to 87 cents an ounce, or a decline of some 24 percent for the decade ending with 1892, and with a still further depreciation in the following year. Between 1849 and 1860 the production of gold in relation to silver was in the ratio of more than fifty to one in actual weight. Thenceforth these conditions were gradually changed, until, for the ten years ending with 1892, there were produced about twenty-five ounces of silver to one of gold, while for the last of these years the proportion was thirty-six to one. Here is the key-note to the silver question; for the precious metals are merely commodities, and life all other commodities, are subject to the inexorable laws of supply and demand. To place a fictitious value on silver is no more practicable than to place a fictitious value on coal or iron, on wheat or pork, and all such efforts can only result in making the United States the dumping ground for the loose silver of the world. Such, at least, are the teachings of political economy, a science the merest elements of which it would seem that many of our law-makers have yet to learn.

Though with a vastly diminished yield as compared with earlier years, California still occupies the foremost rank as a gold-producing state, her output averaging from $12,000,000 to $13,000,000, or more than one-third of the present production of the United States, while of the total yield, since 1848, more than two-thirds must be accredited to the golden state. Of silver her annual product is less than $1,000,000, and has never exceeded that amount. Of quicksilver a considerable amount is produced, the New Almaden mine alone contributing since 1850 more than 70,000,000 pounds. Iron is widely distributed; but can be imported at rates that almost prohibit local development. It was not until 1880 that the first smelting works in California were erected at Clipper gap in Placer county, with a capacity of 15,000 [480] tons a year. Coal, though abundant, is for the most part in narrow seams, of inferior quality, and in localities difficult of access, the only productive veins of importance being near Mount Diablo, within a few miles of San Francisco bay. Of petroleum 8,000,000 gallons were obtained in 1884, and since that date a much larger quantity. The largest works are in Ventura county, whence the crude oil is conveyed in iron pipes to a shipping point on the coast. Asphaltum, formed by the evaporation of the volatile portion of the oil, is also plentiful in several of the southern counties.

Of copper there is enough to supply the demands of the world, but with less than $100,000 worth annually taken from its native gangue. Borax is largely produced in San Bernardino and Inyo counties, from a tract 10,000 acres in extent. In Lake county there are also valuable deposits together with a sulphur bank, on the eastern shore of Clear lake, where sulphur was first manufactured in 1861. The first bar of tin, fashioned in the United States from native ore, came from a California mine; but, as an industry, tin mining has thus far proved unprofitable. Mineral soap, for which no better name has yet been adopted, was known to exist as early as 1849, and mineral paint has become an article of commerce. Building stone is abundant, a marble quarry in Tuolumne county being worked in 1857, while, near Auburn, in Placer county, is granite of excellent quality. Of mineral springs there are fifty which serve as health resorts, with twice as many more unknown to fame. Among metals and minerals but little utilized may be mentioned saltpetre, asbestos, antimony, platinum, chromium, mica, bismuth, zinc, and iridium. Such are the principal resources of California as a mining region, here mentioned not with intent to give special prominence to that state, but because, as elsewhere on the Pacific slope, these resources, apart from the precious metals, are as yet but little appreciated.

To the Pacific states a liberal space was allotted in the southeastern section of the hall of Mines and Mining, flanked on one side by exhibits of mining machinery, and separated by the central nave from those of foreign lands. In front of the group is the pavilion of the golden state, in which are displayed to excellent advantage her many varieties of building materials. The portal is constructed of various kinds of stone, in the form of a triple arch, thirty-six feet in length, with wings on either side, with base of dark granite and white marble columns from Colton and Inyo quarries. The caps of the columns are richly carved, supporting a handsome entablature, and behind them are pilasters of onyx, beautifully veined. The arches are of grey sandstone, the panels and pediments of variegated marble, and the wings of blue green-stone, nearly all the best of California�s building stones, some of them highly polished, being represented in this pavilion.

The specimens gathered during a series of years by the state mining bureau form the basis of the exhibit, and to these were added contributions from private collections, forming together a valuable assortment of economic minerals, some of them almost a novelty to the scientific world. In double rows of show-cases are choice samples of gold and silver ores, containing some $20,000 worth of metal, and representing all the more prominent mines. Here also is the metal itself in various forms; but the centre of interest in the California section was the historical nugget which Marshall picked up from the Coloma millrace on a January morning in 1848, the finding of which revolutionized the commercial conditions of the world. This, however, was a treasure presumably of too great value to be trusted by its owner, even under the care of the Exposition authorities, and was removed not long after the opening of the Fair.

Upon the walls and around them are souvenirs and memorials of pioneer days, including a portrait [481] of Marshall, photographs of hydraulic mining and mining processes and districts, among them Sutter�s mill and mine, with the primitive rocker and pan, the mining methods of those days being a cross between Mexican tradition and Yankee ingenuity. In models is illustrated the science of mine timbering, especially as applied on the Comstock lode, in Nevada, in what is known as the crib system of timbering, invented by a German miner and scientist, Philip Deidesheimer by name. When a depth of some 200 feet was reached in the Ophir mine, the ore body was found to be 45 feet in width, thus rendering almost useless the post and cap system before in use, for such would not uphold the roof of the chamber. Then it was that this man came to the rescue, framing timbers in square sets or cribs from four to six in size, piled one upon another, and filled with waste rock, thus sustaining lateral as well as downward pressure. The plan was widely adopted; and but for this or some similar appliance, the deeper workings of the Comstock, which have added nearly $350,000,000 to the stock of precious metals, would never have reached, as later they did, a depth of more than 3,000 feet. In statistical and other forms much valuable information is conveyed, and here not a few among the pilgrims of the Fair will learn for the first time that of the total yield of gold, amounting since 1848 to $1,900,000,000 for all the United States, California has contributed $1,310,000,000.

Oregon�s display, though unpretentious, was somewhat of a surprise to the majority of exposition sightseers. Coal, iron, and copper were known to exist in abundance; but few were prepared to see in this collection such specimens of gold and silver ores as are here exhibited. Among them are samples of gold quartz assaying several hundred dollars to the ton, one of them from the surface croppings of a recently discovered mine. Nearly all the mineral products of the state are represented, and in a model is shown the process of hydraulic mining. In 1891 Oregon produced more than $1,600,000 worth of gold, and some $300,000 in silver, the former the largest yield recorded up to that date, the principal mines being in the southwestern districts where the veins are small but rich. Sine, in 1855, the first cargo of coal was shipped to San Francisco from the Coos bay mines, these beds have been worked without intermission, the maximum yield of 82,000 tons being reached in 1887, while the gradual decrease to 35,000 tons in 1892 was due only to low prices and labor troubles; for the deposits are practically inexhaustible. In few sections of the United States are iron ores more widely distributed or more advantageously located, the Oswego works furnishing this metal to Oregon and California foundries for more than a score of years. Copper ores are plentiful and rich, though as yet but little utilized. [482] Of nickel there is in Douglas county one of the largest mines in the world, rivalling the famous deposit in the Sudbury district, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Platinum and iridium are found in connection with placer gold; cinnabar exists in several districts, and with marble, granite, and other building stones, few of the Pacific states are better supplied.

In Washington�s tasteful pavilion of terra cotta are 150 tons of mineral samples, gathered from every mine at which samples could be obtained. Among them are gold, silver, iron, lead, and copper ores; with coal, granite, marble, and onyx; sands and clays; bricks, tiles, and terra cotta; thus representing the principal mining resources and industries of this young and ambitious commonwealth. Here also, or in the state pavilion, are reproduced in models or in graphic art several of the more prominent mines, with the mountains and ravines in which they were discovered, with assays, statistics, and other information conveyed in attractive form. In the centre is a monument composed of gold, silver, lead, and copper ores, the shaft entirely of silver specimens, and around it groups of minerals in various designs. Near by is an ornate structure of similar materials with a large mass of magnetic ore. The entire display is a credit to the evergreen state, which, to add to its attractions, purchases a number of gold nuggets, and even constructed roads to remote districts where contributions had been promised.

In comparison with other metals and minerals, Washington�s yield of gold and silver is inconsiderable, the latter amounting for 1891 to less than $600,000. During the regime of the Hudson Bay company coal was discovered in the Cowlitz valley. In 1852 deposits were found on Bellingham bay, and between 1860 and 1879 produced at the rate of 13,000 tons a year. Meanwhile more valuable beds had been disclosed, and the total output gradually increased to its maximum of 1,264,000 tons in 1890, the yield for 1892 being estimated at 900,000 tons. The entire area of coal lands has been stated at 180,000 acres, most of it within 40 miles of tide water, a single company owning claims on the Squak river two miles in length, with veins occurring at intervals from five to twelve feet in thickness, and said to contain 10,000,000 tons of merchantable coal. Bog iron ore is abundant, and in Iron mountain, near the Snoqualmie pass, are veins of magnetite from 50 to 150 feet in thickness. On Kettle river are copper ores assaying from 50 to 75 percent, all these and other resources as yet almost untouched.

Turning to the adjacent state of Idaho, we find that her yield of the precious metals was estimated for 1892 at 90,000 ounces of gold and 3,250,000 of silver, the latter the smallest output in several years, due to extreme depression in prices, and to labor troubles in Coeur d�Alene, the principal argentiferous district. From the low-grade galena ores of this district, occuring in veins of considerable width, and with no indications of failure as depth is attained, were extracted in 1891 nearly 2,000,000 ounces of silver, and [483] 66,000,000 pounds of lead, Idaho ranking next to Colorado in production of the latter. Says one who has made a careful study of her mines: "Coeur d� Alene is most favorably situated for producing lead, the silver being almost a by-product. The ore is cheaply worked, and numerous streams afford ample water power. These mines can be operated at a profit with the price of white metal so low that others are compelled to shut down."

Apart from the precious metals, Idaho has an abundance of coal, iron, copper, sulphur, and salt. From the Narragansett mine in Owyhee county iron ores have been taken so rich in metal as to be cast into dies for stamp-mills, and elsewhere are veins which yield from 50 to 60 percent, while the copper ores of the Bear lake district assay as high as 75 percent. Near Soda springs is an immense deposit of sulphur, much of it containing 70 to 80 percent of mineral, and at the Oneida salt works a marketable quality of salt is produced by simply boiling the water of springs in galvanized iron vessels. In northern Idaho there are mica, marble, granite, and sandstone, and almost throughout the entire country metals and minerals of economic value are widely distributed.

First among the hundreds of exhibits contained in Idaho�s classic pavilion, colored in white and gold, may be mentioned that of the state, including, among others, samples of gold, silver, and copper ores, cinnabar, building stones and clays, quartz crystals, sapphires, amethysts, and ruby sands. From nearly all the more prominent mines contributions were secured, each county being thoroughly canvassed, and with the result that nearly 2,000 samples were forwarded to Jackson Park in several car-loads. Not a few of these are contained in the 2,500 cabinet specimens, selected by an expert, who also states the name of the mine and its owner, the assay value of the ores, the depth at which they were obtained, and other information of interest to mining men.

Gold and silver are freely displayed in the Idaho section; the former in the shape of nuggets from private cabinets, some of them found in the placers worked in pioneer days. Of wire silver there are beautiful specimens, delicate threads of pure silver, resembling filigree work, clinging tenaciously to bunches of galena ore. Among the exhibits are two rectangular blocks of what appears to be lead bullion, but is in fact galena ore, containing 75 percent of lead, 15 of sulphur, and 130 ounces of silver to the ton. Of palladium ore there are samples from the Esmerelda mine in Lemhi county, where it is found in bunches yielding two or three ounces to the ton, in combination with free milling gold. This rare and valuable metal possesses the hardness of the finest steel, and is used, among other purposes, for astronomical, surveying, and electrical instruments, the main [485] supply coming from South American countries.

Of pure aluminum there are samples extracted from the clay banks of Kootenai county, said to contain more than forty percent of the metal. Among valuable stones are the onyx and opal, the latter found in a recently discovered mine on the banks of Snake river, and taken from matrices several inches in width. From Lewiston comes a specimen of rock almost unknown to scientists, of variegated tints somewhat resembling jasper, and one that will cut glass more readily than a diamond. Iron and copper ores are in liberal supply, and a large case is filled with samples of lead and copper concentrates; of granite, marble, and alabaster there are several exhibitors, and of asbestos there is a sample from Owyhee county, where a deposit was found in the autumn of 1892. Finally there is a large collection of mineral waters, in which, as in other resources, Idaho is especially rich, awaiting only the means of transportation for their fuller development.

Except for Alaska, whose yield of gold already exceeds $2,000,000 a year, and with one of the largest gold quartz mines in the United States - the Treadwell lode on Douglas island - with immense deposits of low grade but dividend paying ore, Nevada is the only section of the Pacific slope that is not represented among the main exhibits of the Mining department. And yet, not many years ago, Nevada was the largest silver producing region in the world, the bullion product of the Comstock mines alone amounting to $350,000,000, and for the single year of 1876, when the maximum was reached, to more than $70,000,000.

Utah has some 300 exhibits of gold, silver, silver-lead, copper, zinc, iron, and other ores, with building stones, coal, antimony, quick-silver, sulphur, salt, asbestos, and other metals and minerals, all neatly arranged and fairly representing the abundant mineral resources of the territory. In iron Utah is especially rich, with surface deposits in Iron county alone estimated at 50,000,000 tons, one of them a solid mass of magnetic ore, 1,000 feet long and half that width, from which analyses show from 60 to 65 percent of metal.

Of the 163,000 tons of copper obtained from domestic ores in 1892, more than one-half came from Montana, whose yield for that year was 82,150 tons, against 53,700 tons for Michigan mines. Of this enormous output, the largest thus far on record for a single state, 50,000 tons came from the Anaconda company�s works, whose property includes, besides the mine of that name, the St. Lawrence and the so-called Chambers Syndicate mines. Of the precious metals Montana is also on of the largest producers, her yield of silver exceeded only by that of Colorado. Of gold, silver, lead, and copper her total output for the decade ending with 1890 was estimated at $250,000,000, of which more than two-thirds consisted of gold and silver. In that year was claimed for this state the largest gold mine, the largest silver mine, and the largest copper mine in the country, and in the following year the volume and value of mining products were the largest yet recorded.

Of the several hundreds of exhibits displayed in the Montana section, more than sixty consist of copper and silver-copper ores, both metal and mineral being displayed in every phase of production from sulphides [486] and matte to sheet, tube, wire, and other manufactured forms. Of silver, gold, and silver-lead ores thousands of specimens are exhibited by more than 400 contributors. There is also the largest collection of nuggets contained in the Mining hall, one of them weighing nearly 48 ounces, and with 96 percent of pure gold. Near it is a display of gold crystals, sapphires, and garnets from El Dorado bar on the Missouri, and within a few mile of Helena, and in another case are trays of gold-dust from the placers, each one holding about $1,800 worth of metal. Of coal there are many samples, and the building and other stones and minerals of economic value include granite, marble, porphyry, limestone, clays, gypsum, sulphur, graphite, and asbestos.

The state has a large and valuable collection, among which are silver, silver-lead and iron ores, and surface copper; marble and other building stones; yellow and red ochre, manganese, malachite, chrysolite, tourmaline, dendrites, stalactites, rhyolite, rose and agatized quartz, garnets, jasper, and chalcedony. In a tin brick weighing some thirteen pounds, made by the students of the college of Montana, is represented the yield of that metal for 1892. Another curiosity is an old wooden cam which did service in 1864 at a four-stamp mill on Grasshopper creek, in the Bannack district, where two years before were discovered its placers and quartz ledges.

But the centre of attraction is Montana�s beautiful pavilion, at the entrance of which stands a case of specimens from the Elkhorn district, is the statue of Justice, fashioned of native silver, and with orthodox scales and sword. In this statue, placed under a canopy of maroon velvet, in the centre of the pavilion, and guarded by two bronze lions, was used nearly a ton of sterling silver, the figure resting on a silver globe, beneath which is an eagle with outstretched wings. The lower portion of the pedestal is of ebony, and upon this is a plinth of pure gold, more than two feet square, and representing, as is said, a value of $250,000. The model selected for this, the largest silver statue in the world, was the actress Ada Rehan, whose stately and opulent form is cast in heroic mold. Behind the statue is a structure fashioned of copper bars; on the walls the more prominent mining centres are reproduced in photographs, and at the back a painting, named A Good Strike, represents the scene which its title indicates.

Colorado is well represented, as befits a state which in 1892 produced $5,500,000 in gold and more than $30,000,000 in silver, taking the lead of all other sections in her output of the preciuos metals. Of coal the production increased from 4,500 tons in 1870 to 3,800,000 tons in 1892; of iron the yield for the latter year was 32,000 tons; of lead, 61,000, and of copper 3,600 tons. Add to this her wealth of building and other valuable stones, her carnelian, chalcedony, onyx, jasper, jet, and agate; her petroleum deposits, almost rivalling those of Pennsylvania, and already producing at the rate of several millions of gallons a year, and it will be seen that Colorad is not wanting in mineral resources.

The section allotted the centennial state, adjacent to the southern portal of the building, is faced along the aisles with marble, and on either side of the main entrance are polished granite pillars with capitals of red sandstone. Within is a circle of columns fashioned of various building stones, and a pillar of granite surmounted by a globe, and a massive coal trophy, eight feet square at the base and twenty-four in height, dominate the entire display. Two side of the structure are lines with cases filled with specimens of ore, and masses of gold and silver bearing quartz are grouped along the aisles, while in the centre, wire, nugget, placer, and other forms of gold from the Breckenridge district are freely displayed, together with gold and silver roses from a Denver exhibitor.

Among the many thousands of cabinet specimens contained in this collection, including those in the gallery, a large proportion was furnished by the state school of mines at Golden, and from the Colorado scientific society are samples of eruptive rocks and meteorite, forming together a most valuable and comprehensive assortment. From the more prominent mines there are also contributions, and from business, manufacturing, and other firms and companies are exhibits of coal, coke, iron, marble, building stone, slate, clay, asphaltum, petroleum, mineral waters, and other products, together with smelting and refining processes. Above the cabinets are photographs of the principal mining regions, and of buildings fashioned of Colorado stone, while in map form are depictured the geological and topographical features of the state.

[487] - From Aspen come samples of silver ore that from 70 to as much as 20,000 ounces to the ton, the latter rather an exhibit of metal than of metal bearing rock. From Leadville are also some high grade specimens from the Chyrsolite mine, especially of bromo-chlorides; Forest city sends carbonates that assay 2,500 ounces, and the Lion mine carbonate ores almost as valuable. Of auriferous ores there is also a large collection, including ore from the Elkton mine containing more than $7,000 to the ton in free gold; from the Blue Bird mine telluride which yields up to $1,200 a ton, and others whose average varies from $7 or $8 to $1,100. Of turquoise there are beautiful specimens from the Blue Gem mine at Villa grove, and in a word nearly all the minerals of economic value, contained in the centennial state are here on exposition.

Arizona�s exhibits, adjoining the Colorado section, are displayed to excellent advantage on a raised platform, in the centre of which is a monument of copper ore, in rich colors of blue and green, one of the specimens of which it is composed weighing nearly 7,000 pounds, and the smallest exceeding 800 pounds. Around it are cases of cuprite, azurite, malachite, and other minerals of brilliant hue, some of the samples from the Holbrook mine, where is a cave of stalactite, being covered with incrustations of silver. In blocks of ore assaying from 30 to 70 percent are represented all the more prominent copper mines of Arizona, whose total yield for 1892 was estimated at 19,000 tons. The metal itself is shown in the form of bricks, bars, sheets, rolls, plates, wires, and all other forms in which it is manufactured, and from one of the exhibiting companies are models of its mines and apparatus.

Of gold and silver ores of silver and lead there are nearly 100 exhibitors, one piece of gold ore assaying a dollar to the pound; and from Cochise county, which furnishes the bulk of the collection, are a few gold nuggets, and a sample of onyx nearly eight feet long by two in width; while Mohave county, which is also well represented, presents specimens of agate and silver glance or sulphurets. Sandstone of finest grain is shown in the form of slabs and pillars, and there are portions of petrified trees, some of them beautifully polished.

Almost in the centre of New Mexico�s section is a structure composed entirely of native ores in the form of a miner�s cabin, and near it are relief models of several prominent mines. Beyond are pictures of the typical miner in orthodox costume, and with his patient and long-suffering burro. Here and in the western galleries is a large collection of minerals, including all the varieties discovered since, in 1832, were extracted from the so-called old placers a few thousand dollars worth of gold. Nearly all the metals common to the Pacific slope are contained in these sections, the greater number of the exhibits consisting of gold, silver, silver-lead, and copper ores; while coat is represented in the form of a pyramid, its materials furnished by the Madrid mines, the property of a railway company.

[488] - Coal is the feature in Wyoming�s exhibit, representing an industry whose output for 1892 was 94,000 tons. Iron and copper are widely distributed; but neither have been as yet extensively worked, though in Albany county is a mountain of ferruginous rock assaying as high as 80 percent of metal. Petroleum is found near the surface in many localities; near Laramie is a large deposit of mica; building stone is abundant; agates, amethysts, and other valuable stones have been found in the valley of the Sweetwater river; plumbago and graphite, soda, sulphur, asphaltum, and asbestos are among Wyoming�s minerals, and the precious metals are found in many portions of the state. All these are represented in her pavilion, in which the central point of interest is a shaft of coal from the Black hills mines, most of the material furnished by the Union Pacific Coal company�s work at Rock springs. The Wyoming Railway and Iron company has a large collection of ores; asphaltum is freely displayed, and in glass tubes are the various grades of petroleum manufactured by the Black Hills Oil company.

In addition to those already mentioned, California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado have exhibits in the northwestern galleries, consisting principally of cabinet specimens, covering the entire field of their mineral wealth. Nevada, to which no space was allotted on the ground floor, occupies the largest area, the White Pine district making an elaborate display. In quartz crystals and ornamental stones the collection is especially rich. The Gunnison region of Colorado sends many specimens; but the feature in this section is the heroic figure of the Silver Queen of the World, seated in a triumphal car of silver, the canopy overhead and the foundation upon which it rests being richly encrusted with powdered crystals. This foundation serves as the entablature of several marble pillars, those at the main entrance being arranged in pairs. Cupids precede the chariot, scattering as they run disks of gold and silver, each piece as it falls from their cornucopias displaying the watchword, Free Coinage. Beneath their feet and upon the front of the structure are skillfully fashioned in mineral substances the words, Aspen, Colorado; and specimens and gems are tastefully displayed.

First among the exhibits of foreign participants may be mentioned Germany�s elaborate display, one in which are fully illustrated the mining and metallurgical industries of an empire which ranks first among the continental nations of Europe, her volume and value of production exceeded only by that of England and the United States. Of gold and silver extracted from native ores the yield is inconsiderable; but from imported ores there were produced in 1890 several thousand pounds� weight of gold, and of silver, in connection with the smelting of lead and copper, more than 400 tons. Of coal the German output for 1892 was 71,000,000 [489] tons; of pig iron, 4,900,000 tons; of sulphur and sulphuric acid, 437,000; of zinc, 140,000; of lead, 98,000, and of copper, 25,000 tons; these representing the principal economic minerals whose product was valued for that year at about $225,00,000. Copper is largely imported, the only important deposit being a vein of cupriferous schist in the Mansfield mines, of inferior quality, but largely utilized through elaborate mining processes; for the Germans have no superiors as metallurgists, the inception of this science dating far back to the prehistoric era of the fatherland, and in the middle ages attaining a higher development than elsewhere in the world.

The German exhibits are divided between the ground and gallery floors, the latter containing chiefly such as pertain to metallurgy and mining processes and apparatus. A considerable portion of the ground floor space is occupied by the Stumm pavilion, at the entrance of which is a massive iron gateway, surmounted by the heroic figure of a blacksmith, with fire-breathing dragons at his feet. Within is a large metal basin, on which are the brawny figures of workers in iron, assisted by sturdy lads, one of whom is helping to grasp with his tongs a bar just issuing from the roller, while he other is pushing a cart filled with molten ore. Above this group is a bust of Baron Stumm, the founder of the works from which it came, the Vereinigte Eisenwerke of Neunkirchen, one of the largest of Prussian foundries, employing several thousand hands, and producing an enormous quantity of manufactured iron. Among its exhibits, which form one of the most imposing collections in the hall of Mining, is a portico of cast iron pipes, flanked by obelisks of rolled an forged iron, the metal being displayed in many structural forms, including coils of wire towering like some huge tropical plant, almost to the roof of the building. In the background is a terrace of rails, and above it a cold-bent specimen, stretching in serpentine form along the rear walls. Here also is reproduced the iron superstructure of the Gotthard railway station, and near by are models of the mills and the dwelling occupied by mechanics.

Near the southern portal of the hall, not far from the Colorado section, is an imposing structure composed of seamless steel tubes, erected by the Mannesmann works of Berlin. The exhibit consists of tubing for boilers and pipe lines, whether for oil, gas, water, or steam, and hollow tapered poles for telephone, telegraph, electric light, and electric railway purposes. The special feature in these articles is that all are rolled from solid blocks by a patented spiral process, which causes the fibres to twist into a rope-like and extremely tough material.

Elsewhere in Germany�s section are specimens from her quarries and coal mines, with coal tar, oils, and paraffine, graphite and its products, and ornamental specimens of zinc. A Heidelberg firm has erected an elaborate structure composed of cement and gravel, though seemingly fashioned of limestone of a bluish tint. At the entrance is an archway with female figures in classic pose. Of cements there are several exhibits, and in the display of a Berlin laboratory are machines and apparatus for comparative tests of this compound, especially of the Portland variety, the experiments conducted in accordance with regulations framed by the government. By the Lehrte and Misburg firm of Manske and company was erected, near the live-stock pavilion, a portal of artificial sandstone, on which is a heroic statue of Germania, its flooring and stairway made of slabs of cement, and with piles of casks containing the manufactured articles.

In the gallery the German division is in compartments, in one of which is a tall gilded shaft, its face [490] representing in sections the relative yield of mineral products. Amber is freely displayed, and in many of the specimens are imbedded various forms of insect life. Other attractions are a tower of iron ores, a model of the Royal Prussian salt-works, and a scientific collection of crystals, with models of crystalline forms, showing geometric figures in different minerals and their interior lines of contact. But the feature of the gallery groups is the models of mines, illustrative of processes and apparatus, and especially of coal mines, by which are produced so large a portion of the mineral wealth of the empire. The last are contained in the general exhibit of Prussian mining, some of them showing the method of wetting the face of the works so as to prevent the spread of fire-damp. Here also is shown a coal dressing plant at the royal mines at Saarbruck, with a drift run in the Konig colliery to test the use of explosives in the presence of fire-damp.

Coal and iron are the principal mining products of the British isles, the value of the former being more than six times that of the latter even in metallic form, while the annual yield of pig and bar iron represents nearly 90 percent of the total value of all metals produced from native ores. In 1891 there were extracted 185,000,000 tons of coal, worth $350,000,000, and giving employment directly to 650,000 miners and laborers; of iron ore nearly 13,000,000 tons were worked into $58,000,000 worth of metal; of lead the output was 32,000 tons; of tin and zinc, each about 9,000, and of copper only 700 tons. The last of these metals is now almost entirely imported, its production steadily decreasing since 1855, in which year the production was 21,000 tons. Meanwhile the steadily increasing yield of the United States, Chile, Australia, and other countries had diminished the price by nearly 60 percent; this, with the gradual exhaustion of the larger deposits, causing a virtual cessation of copper mining in Great Britain. Of iron the production also shows a decrease of about 20 percent within the last fifteen years, and with a more serious decline in value. Of non-metallic minerals apart from coal, and consisting mainly of building and other stones, clays, gypsum, salt, and oil shale, the yield may be estimated at $70,000,000, and the entire mineral yield of Great Britain is nor far short of $450,000,000. Silver, found in combination with lead ores, is produced at the rate of 200,000 or 300,000 ounces at year, and of gold a few hundred ounces have taken from low grade deposits in Wales, while from a mine in Wicklow county, Ireland, have come a few ounces, costing perhaps fifty times their value to extract.

[491] - First among the British exhibits may be mentioned the large collections of minerals, somewhat too widely scattered around the pavilion, but representing together all the minerals of economic value found in the United Kingdom. Among them are many specimens of interest to the scientist, as of the blue-ball clays used for a century or more in the manufacture of the finest descriptions of earthenware; flint and flint implements such as Britain has produced from time immemorial, jet from jet shale in Yorkshire beds, and auriferous quartz with its encasing rock from North Wales. The processes of smelting lead and copper ores are shown in samples from metallurgical works, the former both by reverberatory and blast furnace methods, and the metallurgy of nickel is displayed in samples from a Birmingham establishment, while Sheffield and Bradford firms show how steel and iron are wrought into various forms.

Among the blocks of coal is one second only to the Washington specimen, contained in her state pavilion and presently to be described, the former weighing more than 28,000 pounds and containing 350 cubic feet. Of building and ornamental stones there are slate and granite, the latter in many shapes, as polished columns, monuments, crosses, and concrete, paving blocks, with porphyry from ancient Egyptian quarries worked by a London firm as concessionaires. Another group consists of Portland and other cements, limestone, and artificial stones. Fire clays and fire bricks are freely exhibited, as also are kaolin and fuller�s earth in its crude and manufactured state. Iron, copper, lead, cobalt, antimony, manganese are among the samples in the collections above referred to, and elsewhere are salt in display and decorative forms, and an assortment of grinding, abrading, and polishing substances and apparatus. While in some respects a creditable exhibit, the British section does not worthily represent the great variety and volume of the mineral products of that country.

To much better advantage appears the dominion of Canada, in her ample space to the north of the British division, and extending thence beneath the gallery floor. In this section a large area is devoted to the collections of the Geological and Natural History survey at Ottawa, and of the several provincial governments, including British Columbia and the Northwest territories. In these are included all the economic minerals contained in the dominion, some of them here for the first time placed on exposition. From the Sudbury district in Ontario comes an ingot of pure nickel weighing 4,500 pounds, with ores and mattes sufficient to give color to the superintendent�s opinion that nickel will take the place of tin in the manufacture of household utensils. The ores are mainly of the pyrrhotite description, and of these there are samples from other Ontario mines. Of gold and gold bearing rock the [492] province sends many specimens most of them from her government collection, and of native silver, silver ores, and argentiferous galenas the exhibits are almost as numerous. Of platinum there is a small display, and of antimony a single specimen from a vein where it is found in combination with silver, lead, and sulphur. There is zinc blende from the Thunder Bay district on the northern shore of Lake Superior. Iron in the form of magnetite, hematites, bog-iron, and magnetic iron sand comes from several score of deposits.

Copper and copper ores and pyrites are in plentiful supply, the largest mass being of copper-nickel ore, weighing 12,000 pounds, and forming, with other blocks of copper and nickel bearing rock, a trophy display from the Canadian Copper company. There is a profusion of building and ornamental stones, of clays, marls, and kaolin; of graphite, steatite, actinolite, and molybdenite; with salt, gypsum, quicklime, and hydraulic cement. Apatite, or phosphate of lime, is prominent among the group of fertilizing substances. The Imperial Oil company has a large assortment of petroleum and its products. Asbestos is a feature in the Ontario section, as also are the sheets of mica and the delicately tinted variety known as amber mica, of which there is a crystal weighing 400 pounds from the Godfrey mine in Frontenac county, where in the Sydenham district similar crystals have been found six feet in diameter and with a weight of several tons.

In the exhibits of other provinces those of Ontario are in a measure duplicated. Quebec�s collection rivals that of the sister province, especially in the display of asbestos, mica, plumbago, phosphates, building stones, and iron ores, the last from the Canada Iron Furnace company of Montreal. Among New Brunswick specimens are red granite, freestone, and other building stones, with gypsum and plaster. In the Nova Scotia department are many samples of gold and gold-bearing ores, some of the latter assaying many thousand dollars to the ton. In the central court of the Canadian section is displayed in pyramids of gilded blocks the yield of gold in the several provinces since first it was discovered in British Columbia. Here is represented the output of that province, amounting since 1858 to more than $53,000,000, with a production since 1862 of about $9,000,000 from the Cambrian rock formations on the eastern coat of Nova Scotia, and smaller amounts from Quebec, Ontario, and the Northwest territories, the last producing only since 1889. In numerous samples Nova Scotia shows her wealth in coal, for here are some of the largest carboniferous deposits in the world, one of the mines running far under the bed of the Atlantic, and with seams of extraordinary richness. British Columbia and the Northwest have also many specimens of bituminous and anthracite coal, and from the latter are samples of coal tar, petroleum, clay, and building stone. Finally there are shown in topographical and geological charts, in sectional maps, in photographs and drawings, the locations of mineral regions, together with the more prominent mines, their workings and processes.

With all her wealth of resources, it is somewhat remarkable that Canada imports more largely than she produces of minerals and their manufactures. First on the list of her products is coal, of which 3,400,000 tons were extracted in 1891, and next in the order names, in relative value, are copper, gold, petroleum, asbestos, iron, and silver. For that year her mining output was estimated at $20,400,000, against $25,000,000 of imports, the latter mainly in the form of manufactured iron and steel, which alone amounted to $14,000,000. Ontario is especially rich in minerals; and here have been recently discovered immense deposits of nickel, especially in the Sudbury district, whence, though the ores are of low grade, yielding on an average less than three percent, $2,700,000 worth of that metal were exported in 1891. Of iron, chiefly in the form of magnetites and hematites, and in quality equal to the best of Swedish, there are large and valuable strata. Coal is widely distributed throughout the dominion, the area of coal-bearing lands in the Northwest territories being estimated at 65,000 square miles.

From the far north let us turn to the great southern continent, where beneath the [493] Southern Cross is a land abounding in mineral resources. As in other departments of the Fair, New South Wales is the only Australian colony represented in the mining division, but in this section is fully illustrated the mineral wealth of a country which has thus far produced a larger amount of gold than all the Pacific states. Since, in 1851, a luckless prospector, observing that the California placers were found amid geological formations closely resembling those which he had seen in Australia, and taking ship fro that country straightway discovered gold, the southern continent has added more than $1,600,000,000 to the world�s stock of the precious metals. Victoria is the largest producer, her total yield up to the close of 1892 being estimated at $1,300,000,000, and of the remainder nearly $200,000,000 is accredited to New South Wales, whose output for the decade ending with 1860, to less than half that amount for the ten years ending with 1890. The discovery of large silver deposits in the latter colony is of comparatively recent date, and yet from a single district were extracted in 1892 nearly $12,000,000 of that metal, with more than 40,000 tons of lead.

By visitors of all nationalities it is conceded that the exhibits of New South Wales form one of the most interesting and comprehensive collections in the hall of Mining, far surpassing those of Great Britain and other countries whose appropriations were of much larger amount. In several thousand packages were forwarded hundreds of tons of specimens, consisting largely of gold in every conceivable form, but including also many samples of silver and silver ores, of coal, iron, copper, lead, antimony, bismuth, and cobalt, with building, ornamental and precious stones, mineral paints, petroleum, cement and lime, and diamond-bearing earth.

At the entrance of the pavilion, fronting on the central nave and north of the Canadian section, is a pillar of frosted silver from the Broken Hills Silver Mining company, whose veins bid fair to rival the far famed lodes of Potosi. [1] The shaft is festooned with garlands and surmounted by a figure of Atlas, supporting his customary burden, with masses of ore at its base, and on one side minor structures of copper, tin, antimony, and silver. From the government collection are silver ores and blocks, and in a nugget of virgin gold is represented $6,000 worth of that metal, with gold quartz assaying 258 ounces to the ton. To the exhibit of private stones there are contributions from several private collections, and of special value is the display of opals.

In the background of this section are inscribed on a lofty wall statistics as to the mineral yield of New South Wales. Here the visitor may learn that this colony has produced gold to the value of $187,000,000; silver and lead, $54,000,000; coal, $124,000,000; tin, $46,000,000; copper, $29,000,000; iron, $1,800,000; and petroleum and other mineral oils, $6,000,000. Add to these the value of other products of the mine, and we have a total yield of at least $500,000,000, for a country whose population in 1892 did not exceed 1,200,000 souls.

Beneath these figures are pillars of various minerals, one of them in the form of a vertical section of kerosene shale. Coal is liberally represented in columns, blocks, and smaller specimens, and in diagram form are shown the thickness of seams and geologic formations of the more prominent districts. Elsewhere are tin, copper, antimony, bismuth, mercury, and iron ores, some of them arranged in structural forms, with ingots and bars of tin and copper, and specimens of the tin-bearing granites of New South Wales, which closely resemble the Cornish formations on the southwestern coast of England, whence tin was extracted long before Boadicea did battle with the Roman legions. Building stones are freely displayed, as also are clays and bricks, and in the form of an entrance way are specimen blocks of colonial marble.

Though as a mining country France does not compare with Great Britain or Germany, her production of metals and minerals is very considerable, the yield for 1892 being valued at more than $90,000,000. Of coal the output for that year [495] was estimated at 26,000,000 tons and yet with imports of 10,000,000 tons, thus making an average consumption of nearly a ton a year per capita of her population. Of pig iron the annual product is about 2,000,000, and among other metals the largest yield is of zinc, lead, and copper, with a few kilograms of gold and a large amount of silver from imported ores.

The French section is adjacent on the north to that of New South Wales; a feature of it is an exhibit from what is claimed to be the only mine in the world which produces pure carbonate of magnesia. Among the more artistic collections are bronzes, enamelled tiles, and casts showing the quality of molding sands. Cement is largely represented; a Bordeaux mine-owner has a display of manganese, and a few samples of slate, coal, and patent fuels almost complete the list of what France has to show in the Mining hall in the way of native products. In common with Great Britain and some other foreign participants, France is not worthily represented in this department of the Fair, a large portion of her space being covered by a rustic pavilion, with a group of aquatic plants in the centre, affording a place of rest for weary sight-seers. From the Laurium mines in Greece, controlled by Frenchmen, are massive specimens of silver, lead, and zinc, and from New Caledonia a collection of nickel ores, chrome, and cobalt.

In the Austrian section, west of the French pavilion, are several exhibits worthy of note. The mineral waters of Carlsbad are contained in vessels fashioned in the shape of a pavilion, which presents in dioramic form this noted resort, with the lofty mountains that surround it. On the outer walls are depicted in detail the hotels, drinking booths, and architectural features of the place. But it is in iron and steel that Austria makes the best display, noticeable among her exhibits being a hexagonal structure of crucible steel, known as the Poldi variety. The posts, eighteen feet in height, were hammered from ingots, a centre-piece and several cases within representing various commercial forms of the metal, with sections fractured to show the uniformity of the material. Another exhibitor advertises his schythes by cutting sheets with their keen edges and on the wall of the aisle is a sheet of iron 160 feet long, a yard in width, and one-twelfth of an inch in thickness, said to be one of the largest plates ever rolled. This, as well as the Poldi steel, comes from Bohemia, whose metal-workers are almost as famous as those who produce the beautiful glass-ware displayed in the hall of Manufactures.

A feature in the Italian section adjacent to the Canadian groups is a translucent mound of alabaster, composed of blocks as taken from the quarries, side by side with which are beautiful statuettes and other sculptured forms. An admirable piece of work in their vicinity is the leaning tower of Pisa, cut from a block of alabaster extracted near that city. There are also many specimens of the famous marbles of Italy, including a large octagonal font, which for more than three centuries stood in the convent of Gesu e Maria at Rome. This is made of the Claudian variety, one largely used by the Roman Catholic church, as in the cross on the "holy gate" of St. Peters, and the consecrated stones of the altar. Sulphur from the Vesuvius and other districts is displayed in blocks and powders, with asphaltum, bitumen, and petroleum, also [496] from volcanic regions, and tiles of cement richly colored and ornamented with geometric designs.

The Grecian section was originally allotted to the United States of Columbia, which account for its position among the Spanish and Latin-American exhibits. The display, although small, is suggestive, containing as it does contributions from the famous Laurium mines near Athens, whose treasures in the ancient days of her naval supremacy went far toward building her fleets and supporting her citizens in luxury. They are now controlled as I have said by a French company, which also exhibit brimstone and sulphur in ores and powders. Elsewhere are magnesite blocks, with emery and lead in crude and manufactured forms. Marbles from the classic isle of Scyros present a business-like aspect, as though advertising themselves, and an altar of Athenian marble is erected by the committee of Olympus, not in honor of the gods but of the Columbian Exposition.

In the western vestibule of the hall are three large gilded cubes, the inscriptions upon which inform us that since 1745, when Russian gold was first mined in commercial quantities, the empire has produced more than 1,800 tons of that metal, Siberia furnishing nearly three-fourths. South of this monument are shown in specimens and photographs the varied mineral resources of a domain which covers one-sixth of the entire land surface of the globe, one side being occupied with a row of cases in which are hundreds of bronze figures symbolic of civilization and barbarism. A shaggy-coated bear rears his unwieldy form beside the figure of a nobleman, and a gaunt wolf crouches near the feet of a richly attired lady. Horses, stags, and dogs, peasants and high officials, princes and Cossacks, with typical representatives of various classes are here reproduced in miniature. The iron works of the Ural and other noted districts have also contributed of their ores and first forms of manufacture, and a fine display is made of swords and cutlery, many of the articles with handles of skillful design and workmanship. Maps indicate the most promising and productive districts for gold, coal, petroleum, salt, iron, copper, and other minerals. There are also photographs of the more valuable mines of coal and rock salt, and near one of the entrances are massive specimens of the latter, in contrast with which blocks of black marble display their shining surfaces.

Adjacent to the Russia section on the north is the small space in which Japan reveals her mineral wealth, as yet but little developed. The entrance-ways are in rustic form, and within is a tastefully arranged, instructive, and unique exhibit. In the centre are ingeniously constructed models showing the cross sections of mines as worked in ancient and modern times. Front views are also given representing a dark cave which forms the inlet to the old mine, and an ornate pavilion through which one passes into the other. Japanese miners are shown in the narrowest of galleries, lying upon their backs or stomachs, working like slaves, and exposed to all the dangers of caves and explosions, while the tools and apparatus for extracting ore and pumping water are of the most primitive kind. As Japan has recently adopted modern machinery and methods of timbering, the interior view of the mine of today presents no remarkable features, the chief interest centring in the skillful workmanship of the model. Close at hand are specimens of coal and copper, silver and gold in the ore and leaf, antimony, commercial clays, variegated marble, graphite, sulphur, native and refined, and table salt in plain and ornamental forms, the first two articles representing an annual yield of about $10,000,000. Among the minerals displayed in manufactured forms are crucibles made of graphite. There are also photographs of some of the most productive mines, and maps showing the location of coal-fields and collieries, as well as the geological distribution of soils, while specimens of the soils themselves may also be examined, the entire exhibit mainly organized by the mining and geological bureaus.

[497] - In the southwestern portion of the hall are the exhibits of Spain and Latin-American countries. The display made by the former consists of massive specimens of lead ore, with primary manufactures of lead, samples of copper, phosphates, salt, slate, marble, and many other minerals. There is also Cuban asphalt, which contains 70 percent of bitumen, and is said to possess great commercial possibilities. Among the decorative features in the Spanish pavilion is a large array of mining tools, tastefully grouped at various points.

Elsewhere among these groups is sufficient evidence that the republican offspring of Spain are by no means lacking in enterprise. A pyramid in the centre of Brazil�s pavilion represents the output in gold of the once famous Minas Geraes, which during the early part of the eighteenth century produced $700,000,000 of that metal. Around its base are several varieties of marble and granite, while in trophy and other forms the coal mines of Rio Grande do Sul illustrate the mineral wealth of the country. Mica, quartz, and asbestos are shown in many beautiful shapes, together with lead and copper ores, and the display of gems, though brilliant, attracts less attention than a remarkable stone of elastic qualities, of which there are abundant deposites in the state of Minas Geraes.

The live-stock and agricultural interests of the Argentine Republic completely overshadows her mining industries, which thus far have not developed into commercial importance. In this department, however, the government bureau of mines and geology has tastefully decorated a large section in blue and white, installing therein specimens of marbles and other building stones, with clays and salts, iron and coal. The geological maps hung upon the walls indicate that the most promising mineral deposits are in the northwestern portions of the country, near the headwaters of the Negro and Colorado rivers.

Ecuador and Bolivia have but a miniature display, the former presenting a few specimens of gold among a miscellaneous collection, while the ancient glories of Potosi are but feebly represented in the tiny pavilion of the latter, her mines, which in the sixteenth century produced as much as $80,000,000 of silver a year being almost abandoned. The largest mines are now at Huanchaca, and are mainly controlled by Chilean capitalists; but their wealth finds little expression in the hall of Mining. Other exhibits are masses of crude rubber, a portrait of the president, and a large table made by a resident of Cuzco, who informs us that he is no cabinet maker but sends his handiwork, composed of the choicest varieties of native woods, as a contribution to the Fair.

Nitrate of soda forms the text of Chile�s exposition. It is displayed in various shapes, a large model of the famous works at Rosario de Huara showing one of the largest establishments for its manufacture in the world. Upon a shaft within this section are statistics as to the growth of this industry from 1830, when only 800 tons of nitrate were exported, until, in 1890, exports had increased to more than 1,000,000 tons. Not only is this a most important source of individual wealth, but the national treasury derives therefrom an annual income of $20,000,000, or more than one-half of its revenue.

In Mexico nearly 4,000 mines are under regular exploitation, with others worked at intervals, and a vast number of abandoned claims, many of which if reopened would yield excellent returns. While as a rule [498] processes are somewhat primitive, modern appliances have been largely introduced among the more productive mines, and especially in those which have passed under foreign ownership. One advantage is the cheapness of labor, wages varying, according to the nature of the task, from 50 cents to $1.25 a day, the latter rate for the barrateros who extract the ore, sometimes receiving in addition a share of what they take out. Other fostering influences are the security for life and property established under the Diaz regime, and the building of railways, affording direct communication with the United States; for until recent years nearly all the heavier machinery was imported by way of Vera Cruz.

The history of mining in Mexico dates almost from the time of the Spanish conquest, and yet her deposits of the precious metals shows no signs of exhaustion, the yield of those which have been abandoned being more than compensated by new discoveries. Between 1521 and 1891, a period of 370 years, the total production of silver has been estimated at $3,570,000,000, and of gold $277,000,000, while the present yield of both these metals may be stated at somewhat over $40,000,000; of copper, $2,500,000; and for other minerals, metals, and metalloids, including iron, sulphur, salt, mercury, clay, and ornamental and precious stones, may be added a value of $25,000,000, thus giving to her mining and mineral products a total valuation of more than $70,000,000.

To Mexico was allotted a liberal space in the southwestern section of the hall, her display far surpassing those of Spain and other Spanish-American countries. Here, as in the Manufactures building, an attractive feature is the collection of ornamental stones, and especially of onyx, with a newly discovered variety to which has been given the name of rose garnet. The latter is one of the most remarkable of minerals, combining some of the best qualities of ornamental and building stones, and the only deposit thus far discovered is at Zalostoc Morelos, within 100 miles from Mexico, near a line of railway, and in sufficient quantity to permit systematic development. It is, moreover, a merchantable stone, one which, though harder than granite, can be easily quarried, cut, and polished, and is not affected by the most violent changes of temperature. Technically it is described as a silicate of lime and alumina, and when worked into thin slabs and placed in a strong light, a beautiful color effect is produced, the garnets largely adding to its decorative qualities. Near [499] the eastern entrance-way are pillars, slabs, and ornamental and geometric designs in rose garnet, while the rare beauty of its texture is further illustrated in a delicate plate of the mineral contained in an illuminating apparatus. Elsewhere the exhibits, selected with the utmost care through a commission appointed by the government, are for the most part arranged in cabinet form, many of them contained in handsome bronze showcases. There is also a group of ore-washing apparatus, and viewed as a collective exposition of mining resources and industries, the entire display is one of which our sister republic has good reason to be proud.

Nowhere in the hall of Mining is there a more attractive spot than the Cape Colony section, south of the Brazilian exhibits; for here of an afternoon, between the hours of two and four, is shown the process of diamond washing from soil imported from the richest deposits of the Kimberley mines. To Americans this should be of special interest, for by the United States are purchased considerably more than one-half of the $20,0,000 worth of diamonds annually produced by a single company, whose rate of production is thus restricted only to maintain the market value of its output.

The section is surrounded by a high partition, with plate-glass windows, within which the earth is scattered as found in the mines; but a better view of the processes of washing and cutting may be obtained from an elevated platform, to which a stairway leads from the ground floor. First of all the sand is washed away from the pebbles in a larger pan or pulsator, and that which remains is placed in a cylinder, with spiral motion and apertures of various sizes, through which the pebbles are dropped into the sieves beneath. These operations are conducted by stalwart Zulus, attired in full dress Exposition costume - a cap and a pair of short trousers; for other garments they cannot be induced to wear. One of the Zulus stands guard at the gate, armed with a war club with massive ivory head. He is a chieftain of his tribe, a man of gigantic stature, and one of the impi which defeated the British troops in the days of King Cetshwayo.

The pebbles are handed to the sorter, who spreads them upon a table and searches for the diamonds, several valuable stones being taken at times [500] from a single pan of earth. The rough diamonds are then delivered to manipulators for cutting and polishing, and are thus prepared for market, losing about half their weight through these processes, of which the latter is performed by a revolving plate making 2,000 revolutions to the minute. In a glass case are rough diamonds valued at $750,000, including all colors, forms, and degrees of crystallization, from deep brown to purest white, and with many intermediate shades, as blue, green, pink, and orange-yellow. There are also the black diamonds used for cutting, the hardest of all varieties, and such freaks of nature as the twin diamond, the latter exceedingly rare. Other exhibits from southern Africa are specimens of copper ore from Namaqualand; asbestos, whose fibres are of a bluish tint; and a cabinet of minerals collected in the region south of the Zambesi river.

In the eastern sections of the hall, and extending into the area occupied by the states, is a large display of mining machinery of many patterns and for many uses. The most extensive exhibits are by Fraser and Chalmers, the Chicago Iron works, and the Gates manufactory, all of Chicago, the specimens form the first of these firms being among the most massive in the building. An imposing structure is the so-called Chilian mill for the crushing of gold and silver ore, its ponderous rollers, as they revolve upon their axis, having also a horizontal rotary motion within the huge metallic die. This is a sample of the score of such mills now in operation in Mexico and the United States, and its companions in this section are several huge quartz mills, a lead furnace, rollers for such fine work as the crushing of diamond bearing earth, and a large assortment of apparatus for the reduction and refining of copper ores. Of the latter mineral, there is a compartment filled with many beautiful specimens, the company also showing samples of a recently discovered alloy, known as ferro-alumina, which is claimed to be the strongest and hardest metallic substance known, and is specially valuable for such castings as the shoes and dies of stamp mills and rock crushers. In the section occupied by the Chicago Iron works are apparatus for crushing quartz, for smelting ores, and for hoisting and pumping, while across the aisle is a crushing plant, installed by the Gates company, including a leviathan rock breaker with a capacity of 150 tons an hour. In this section is also a model in operation, showing the processes of crushing, elevating, screening, and distributing stone used for paving or ballasting.

Elsewhere are various mills for the grinding of rocks, ores, and all other refractory materials, their chief distinction consisting of the various motions with which the rollers works in their dies. Many of the machines are arranged for either wet or dry grinding, some of them stationary, and others portable. There are also [501] mills which serve both as pulverizers and separators, with apparatus specially designed for the preparation of paint materials.

The collection of drills is an interesting feature, the machines being of all sizes and makes, one of them for boring to a depth of a mile or more. Elsewhere is apparatus for sawing and polishing stone, contributors form the eastern and middle states being foremost in this display. Another group consists of chain belting and appliances for elevating and hauling minerals. Of this class the Jeffrey manufacturing company, of Columbus, Ohio, is a prominent exhibitor, its section containing, besides a large assortment of machinery, a model showing as section of a coal vein. Illustrating the method of moving ores and coal, is an underground haulage plant, in a tunnel beneath the southern portion of the building, composed of a wirerope tramway, cars, and engine furnished by several companies. At the further end of the hall, on the ground floor, is a system of iron pipes, representing an invention whereby it is claimed great savings of time and money would result from conveying minerals in semi-liquid form from mine to market, pulverized, mixed with water, piped, and then, after reaching their destination, pressed into solid cakes.

In the machinery department are also exhibits of metal manufactures. Ploughs, rails, fence-wire, and other forms of iron and steel are displayed by a Pennsylvania company, the key-stone state being further represented by two tasteful pavilions of sheet iron, one of them surmounted by a golden eagle. In the official classification these exhibits are grouped under the head of the metallurgy of iron and steel, while under the [503] class designated as copper and its alloys is the pavilion constructed of brass and copper tubes by Randolph and Clowes, of Waterbury, Connecticut. The latter stands at the eastern entrance to the building, across the hall being the golden trophy symbolic of Russia�s mines, and between the two the great shaft of coal from Pennsylvania. Coal is also, as I have said, at the base of the monument in the northern end of the hall, representing the mineral production of the United States for each second of time, with asbestos at the apex of the structure. But among all the forms of mineral manufacture there are none more striking than those exhibited by the H. W. Johns Manufacturing company of New York. In a tasteful pavilion the firm has a display of raw asbestos, showing also their looms in operation, with felt in various shapes, a fireman clad in garments of asbestos, and a miniature theatre curtain of the same substance, one considered as nearly fire-proof as textile fabrics can be.

Near the German section, in the southwestern entresol, is the general exhibit of ores and other minerals, with an exposition of the modern processes by which the metals are extracted and transformed into commercial products. Along the central aisle, as a supplement to these object lessons, is a series of small transparencies, copies of cotemporaneous illustrations depicting the ancient and primitive workers in metals of all countries, with their rude apparatus and environment. The entire exhibit is the creation and special pride of the chief of the mining department.

In the copper and tin section are illustrated, by photographs and specimens, the dry and wet processes of reduction, the tin of South Dakota and the copper of Montana being plentifully displayed in their crude forms. A company whose specialty is the refining of copper also shows its method of decomposition by electrical agencies.

It is in this vicinity that Arthur C. Wendt, a New York engineer, shows the first of the many photographs which he has distributed almost throughout the entire department. Here are reproduced the works that he has erected at Antofagasta, Chile, for the crushing, smelting, and [504] refining of silver and copper. The Huancha company, by whom he was employed, is now one of the largest private producers of silver in the world, with a yield form its mines, since 1877, valued at more than $43,000,000. The plant at Antofagasta includes nearly 60 furnaces, of which two are for the refining of silver, with many huge copper pans and settling tanks.

Among these groups a New York firm presents a collection of rare coins, and of cruder forms of metals, with their alloys. Another New York company has a complete assortment of metallic nickel, salts, and alloys, while a Virginia factory shows artistic forms of zinc. Elsewhere, in photographs and models, the methods of extracting gold and silver by modern leaching processes are fully explained, the Russell company of Park City, Utah, making the largest and most interesting display. Its process is distinguished from the old leaching method by the use of bluestone in the hyposulphite solution, and of soda ash as a precipitant for lead. This may be applied to free and rebellious silver ores, and to silver-gold ores and tailings, either in the raw state or after roasting, and has been adopted by various mills in Mexico, Montana, Utah, and Colorado. Whatever its merits as compared with other processes, many expert metallurgists claim that the extraction of gold and silver by lixiviation, or leaching, will eventually supersede both the smelting of ores and the separation of the metals by amalgamation with the use of mercury as a dissolving agent.

Among the exhibits of antimony and mercury, the quicksilver of New Almaden, California, and cinnabar ores from the golden state form the basis of the collection, most of the remainder coming from eastern firms. In this class is included the new metal called electricon, displayed by a New York firm as an anti-friction compound. It is generally admitted, however, that aluminum in some form is the coming metal of the world, and to this has been allotted a liberal space side by side with the groups of iron and steel. Aluminum is shown in composition with iron, gold, ferro-manganese, tin, and copper, [505] as well as in many manufactured products, a reduction company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, occupying the largest space in this section. There are several exhibits on the ground floor which illustrate the metallurgy of iron and steel, including those which show the methods of manufacturing crucible and open hearth steel, the different forms of sheet iron and steel, steel castings, and projectiles. In the gallery are more compact displays, explanatory of these and such other branches as the chemical process of puddling, with mineral wool in all forms, furnace slags, samples of welding, and specimens of tools whose heads are finely tempered.

Beyond the metallurgical department, in the south gallery, is a library containing publications of interest to the mineralogist, with a collection of photographs of eminent men in the domain of this practical science. Midway in this gallery is a large pavilion, in and around which American manufactures of tin and terne display their wares; and in the southeastern corner are assaying and testing laboratories. A Pittsburgh company shows chemical substances for the testing of minerals, and adjoining its compartment is that of a Chicago establishment, containing furnaces, blow-pipes, and other apparatus, in the operation of which heat plays the leading part.

Except for a few mineral cabinets from the eastern states, and miscellaneous collections from California and New Mexico, the southeastern galleries are virtually monopolized by the exhibits of Ward�s Natural Science Institute of New York. To describe [506] this collection in detail would be simply to review the entire domain of geology, with its kindred department of mineralogy. There are several collections, however, of which special mention should be made. Besides many specimens of the precious metals, there is a case containing casts of gold nuggets which have become historic, the list including the Welcome nugget found at Ballarat, Victoria, in 1858, weighing more than 2,000 ounces, and valued at $41,000; the Viscount and the Viscountess Canterbury, both also from Victoria, unearthed in 1870, and valued respectively at $21,000 and $17,000; the Precious, discovered during the succeeding year in the same district, valued at $31,000; the gold nugget taken in 1842 from the Ural mountains, Siberia, weighing 100 pounds and worth $22,000, and the mass of platinum, weight 21 pounds, found there in 1827 and said to be the largest ever mined in a single piece. Another remarkable collection is contained in flat cases along the central aisle, including several hundred gems and ornamental stones, the more precious varieties represented by actual specimens or by models in glass, showing the exact color of the originals and the forms in which they are usually cut. There are similar models of the celebrated diamonds of the world, comprising facsimiles of fifteen historic gems, from the Polar Star, weighing 40 carats and belonging to the Russian Princess Youssoupoff, to the Koh-i-noor of the British crown, and the immense stone in the possession of the Great Mogul, said to weigh 297 carats. Of meteorites there is a large collection, and another interesting exhibit is that which explains the structure of the earth in specimens and geological models, the latter showing not only the order of stratification, but the principal features of erosion and displacement.

The most noteworthy collections in the northeastern and northern galleries are those which consist of coal, coke, and petroleum. The northern entresol is mainly occupied by the Standard Oil company, which has transformed it into a pavilion, its walls and ceiling of a delicate cream color, with decorations in gold. At either end of the section is a minor pavilion, surmounted by a cupola, within whose colonnade is a female figure holding aloft a lamp of antique design. Along the front is a geological representation of the oil producing districts in New York and Pennsylvania, and against the windows at the rear is a large gallery of beautiful transparencies showing the manufactories of the company in Philadelphia, Whiting, and Lima, and its facilities for piping and transporting by steamer and railroad. In one corner is a pyramid of miniature oil barrels, representing the daily product; elsewhere are models showing apparatus for refining, and everywhere are glass vessels filled with petroleum of various grades, and for many purposes. The collection of lamps ranges from the tiniest specimens to such as are used in lighthouses; and in one of the pavilions to which reference has been made are some magnificent specimens of richly ornamental metal and porcelain. In show-cases, built into the outer walls, are others of less elaborate design, with those typical of various [507] countries, one of the latter being an oil lamp used in northern India long before the Christian era.

In the northeastern galleries the Frick Coke company of Pennsylvania reproduces its plant in a series of models, a portion of the miniature machinery being operated by electric power. In the centre of the section is the name of the company, in letters of coke, and upon a huge pile of that material is the inscription "41,000 tons daily."

Many months ago a veteran miner, named Boyce, undertook the task of collecting, for exposition at the Fair, samples of coal from the great producing districts in the United States. The result is displayed in a large number of cubes, contained in cases, which form the enclosure of a small section adjacent to that of the Frick company. The greater portion of the space is occupied by a map of the United States painted upon panels of glass, and showing the location of mines which produce such varieties as gas, smithy, steam, coking, and domestic coals. All the cabinet specimens have numbers corresponding to those on the map, and thus the visitor may ascertain at a glance the varieties of coal produced in each locality.

Near by are many collective exhibits which here need only the briefest mention. Among them are building and ornamental stones, the New England states, New York, South Carolina, Iowa, Illinois, and Colorado showing samples of their granites and slates, while a firm doing business in the empire state has erected a pavilion for the display of Mexican and Californian onyx. Beyond this are all the substances known to manufacturers for grinding, abrading, and polishing, including emery, pumice, corundum, and a compound [508] known as carborundum, composed of silica and carbon combined by an electrical process. Wheels made of this substance are claimed to be the hardest of cutting apparatus, and are especially valuable for polishing diamonds.

In this vicinity are also various exhibits of graphite, and crucibles made of that substance, including collections from several of the oldest manufacturers in the United States. In one of the sections is a solid block of graphite from Ceylon, weighing more than 260 pounds. Cements, asphalts, and artificial stones are arranged in many attractive forms, several of them in ornate pavilions, as those of the Warren Chemical and Manufacturing company and the Barber Asphalt company, of New York, and the Acme Cement Plaster company, of Salina, Kansas. Samples of natural asphalt are shown from the lake of pitch on the island of Trinidad, with an artistic model of that mineral curiosity. At the northern extremity of the eastern entresol is a comprehensive assortment of sulphur, saltpetre, brimstone, and mineral waters, mainly furnished by New York companies, with a large relief map of that state, and a smaller one of the West Indian isle of Navassa, noted for its extensive deposits of sulphate. Close at hand is the only collective exhibit of salts in the Mining hall, with specimens from New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, Utah, Nevada, and California.

World�s Fair Miscellany - While, as in other department, exhibitors, whether of machinery or processes, must be their manufacturers or inventors, they might be represented by an agent appointed for the purpose, subject to the approval of the director-general. With all specimens of ore must be given a brief description of their character and of the location of the deposit, with a rough analysis, and, at the discretion of the exhibitor, such other data as might be of general interest. No blocks of ore or coal must exceed three feet in diameter, except by special permission, and for slabs of marble, artificial stone, etc., the limit was four feet square of surface.

The 28,000 pound block of coal contained in the British section is said to have cost more than $5,000 to place it in the Mining hall, or at the rate of $357 a ton. To hew it out and hoist it to the surface was a nine months� task, rails being laid through the galleries of the mine, and a long steel car constructed to haul it to the shaft. Several tons of earth were removed from this specimen before it was forwarded to the Alexandra docks at Liverpool, and thence conveyed to Jackson park.

The silver contained in the statue of Justice in the Montana section was extracted from native ores at various smelting works throughout the state, the entire mass being melted in a crucible at Grand Crossing, and poured into a mold more than eight feet in length. To construct a mold which would reproduce an exact counterpart of the model, fashioned in plaster by Parks, and to cast the figure without flaw or blemish, was a task of no slight difficulty. This was finally accomplished during the month of March, though for several weeks before expert founders had been at work. The molten metal was carefully poured into the mold in the presence of a number of invited guests, among whom were the presidents of the National Commission and the Chicago board. The figure, swathed in cotton batting and woolen cloths, was brought to the Mining hall on a truck in a long, low, coffin-shaped box, and was thence removed by a derrick and fifteen stout laborers to the floor of the building, from which it was hauled by windlass and crow-bars to the Montana section. The statue was unveiled on the 30th of May.

In connection with the exhibit of diamonds from the Kimberley mines in Cape Colony, it may be mentioned that, since their discovery in 1867, several tons of diamonds have been exported from that country, representing a money value of $500,000,000. The field is now virtually absorbed by the De Beers company, which, for the four years ending June 30, 1892, produced 7,421,000 carats� weight of diamonds, worth more than $50,000,000, paying annual dividends of 10 to 12 1/2 percent on an invested capital of nearly $20,000,000. During the last of these years there were washed 3,240,000 loads of earth, yielding 3,035,000 carats, valued at about $19,000,000, the dividend declared amounting to nearly $2,500,000. While there are some large and valualbe stones in the Cape Colony exhibit, none will bear comparison with the large orange-yellow, double-deck brilliant display in the Tiffany collection in Manufactures hall.

The deposit of rose-garnet, mentioned in connection with the Mexican exhibits, was discovered by one Niven of New York, a mineral prospector of scientific attainments. A specimen forwarded to New York was pronounced to be the best ornamental stone of modern times. In an article on the Columbian Exposition in the Berlin Zeitung, Julius Lessing describes it as "a gray marble containing garnet-red masses which have every appearance of costly inlaid mosaic work, all varieties of color, from deep red to the most delicate yellow and milk white, appearing in the same block." Laboratory tests have demonstrated its hardness, strength, resistance to extremes of temperature, and other valuable properties as a building stone.

After the close of the Fair it was intended to present the Idaho state collection of minerals to her university. An offer made for it by the University of Chicago was declined. The ruby sand, mentioned in the text as one of Idaho�s exhibits, is contained in small vials, and came from the Neal district. At first sight it does not appear to differ from common sand, but when closely inspected red and brown particles are observed, shining like rubies. These form the metallic base of the earth known as zirconia, and are worth more than thrice their weight in gold. In Washington county, Idaho, there are places where zircon sand exists in paying quantities, and at Baltimore are the only works for its reduction.

Footnote [1] Between May 1886 and May 1892 there were taken from the most productive of the Broken Hills mines 36,500,000 ounces of silver and 150,000 tons of lead, some of the ore assaying many thousands of dollars to the ton. Meanwhile more than $1,300 a share had been distributed as dividends and bonus on stock on which only $45 a share was paid up, thus giving a net return of over 3,000 percent on the invested capital, probably the largest recorded in the history of silver mining.