1887.] y* [Stevenson. 



Systematic mining is possible in deposits such as this, and the only availa- 

 ble method is follow ore, wherever found, until it ends. 



The separation of the lead and zinc ores is effected by jigging. The 

 ore, after crushing and grinding, passes to the jigs, which are in sets of 

 four. The galena is almost wholly removed in the first, while the ores of 

 zinc are separated by the remaining three. The separation is almost com- 

 plete and the amount of escaped ore passing off in the tailings is insig- 

 nificant. Much of the lead produced here is manufactured into shot of 

 decidedly excellent quality, and an air-shaft, 263 feet deep, is utilized as 

 the shot tower. 



Along the road leading from Thorn's ferry to the Valley pike, exposures 

 are few until Mr. Raper's house has been reached, but thence to the pike 

 exposures are good. The Knox limestone is shown in the road near Mr. 

 Raper's house and at a little way further the shales are at the surface. But 

 a slight fault exists here, for the limestone re-appears within a few rods 

 and continues until a short distance beyond the road leading to Walton's 

 furnace. Thence to the pike the road lies in the shales and the Potsdam 

 of Lick mountain nowhere reaches it. The beds seem to be thrown into 

 two anticlinals, of which the more northerly is crossed near the last fork 

 in the road, less than two miles from the pike, which is reached at barely 

 seven miles from Wytheville. 



Knox limestones, dipping west of north at sixty-five to sixty-seven 

 degrees, are well exposed in Wytheville along the street leading Irom the 

 railroad station to the court-house ; but exposures are very poor for some 

 distance northward from the borough on the Wythe and Tazewell pike. 

 The dip is soon changed on that side and the first good exposures show the 

 south of east dip practically the same as the opposite dip on the other side 

 of this Wytheville trough. The ridge on which the borough of Wythe- 

 ville stands marks the course of the synclinal, which is cut off by the Max 

 Meadows fault at a little way further east. The anticlinal north from this, 

 in which the Max Meadows fault may originate, has been crossed before 

 one comes to the blacksmith's shop two miles and a half from the court- 

 house in Wytheville, for there the dip is northward at from twenty-five to 

 thirty degrees ; but the place of the axis cannot be determined easily as 

 the surface is covered with a thick coat of sands and clays. 



The dip is changed .again at somewhat more than two miles and a half 

 from Stony Fork of Reed creek, the southerly direction being very marked 

 at the S-curve in the road, while at Mr. Brown's house it is fifty-five 

 degrees almost east of south. This direction of dip continues to the little 

 valley in front of Stony Fork M. E. Church, where the Walker Mountain 

 fault is crossed and one comes to the Umbral shales. The Knox limestone 

 is well shown in the low hill, while shales are seen at its northerly foot 

 dipping toward the fault at from thirty to thirty-five degrees. The shales 

 are exposed occasionally at the roadside, and one comes to the silicious 

 limestone at the Vespertine ridge, which forms the foothill of Little Walker 

 mountain. The coal-bearing group begins below this limestone and its 



PBGC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXTV 125. M. PRINTED MAY 3, 1887. 



