Lesley ] 104: [March 7, 



ville), and there can be little doubt that mining operations will be success- 

 ful at certain points along the outcrop. 



It is well to remember the ore bed at the bottom of the red shale 

 formation of No. V, the outcrop of which ought to be found still higher 

 up the slope of Dunning Mountain, close to the uppermost stratum of 

 the Middle Silurian White Sandrock of No. IV. Between Marklesburg 

 and Saxton this bed (part rock ore and part soft fossil) is more than 20 feet 

 thick, and is mined, yielding from 2 to 6 feet of soft ore. 



Method of Mixing. — Mr. Harden describes his views of the locality 

 thus : In the several sections of the measures taken at the various 

 openings and points of exposure we have conditions exceptionably favor- 

 able to the working of the less inclined portions of the belt, by open 

 quarrying, and a personal examination made of the two tunnel openings 

 of the Kemble Iron Company at Bedford Gap discovered nothing to me 

 likely to conduce to an unfavorable condition for the mining of the more 

 highly inclined and heavier covered portions of it. On the contrary, a 

 somewhat extended practice in the mining of such like measures leads 

 me to the conclusion, that, in the exercise of the skill necessary to all 

 such work, the mining of these ores will not be productive of more than 

 the avei'age of ordinary difficulty, and as compared with the mining of 

 the unstratilkd ores, will certainly be less, the cost of production also 

 bearing relation thereto ; always providing that the ores maintain their 

 aggregate thickness and their average distance one from the other. 

 And since the sections exhibited were taken at points extending ever ar. 

 area of several miles, we are not led to expect a greater variableness 

 than represent the sections themselves. 



Hand specimens of the ore brought away gave a specific gravity of 

 2,818, a little more than that of the sandstone by which it is accompanied. 

 This gives 175.62 lbs, per cube foot or 12.75 cubic feet to the ton. 



From these data the production of ore will be 284 tons per inch per 

 acre ; which multiply by the number of inches thick in any given sec- 

 tion and we have the total in tons per acre of the locality to which the 

 section applies. Average the whole, sayat 30 inches, and we get 10,224 

 tons per acre over the area covered. 



Presuming that those localities hold the beds easiest gotten will be 

 the fust to be attacked, a word on open quarrying will not be out of 

 place. Stripping the ore, that is, taking oft* the surface covering, will 

 necessarily be the first operation, and in doing this the dirt should not 

 be dumped where it is likely to be in the way of future operations. This 

 is not a needless warning. There is not an opening with which I am 

 acquainted, unless lately made, that is not suffering more or less by 

 being hampered up with old stripping, and where, in more than one 

 instance, it has not had to be moved a second time. 



Mr. Walters says that the greatest depth of covering on his farm, and 

 at the explorations made in the neighborhood of it, is 6 feet to the top 



