ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 79 



ins;- which little is as yet known and nothing published, so 

 far as I am aware. 



The data used here are due to the preliminary examina- 

 tions of the North Carolina Geological Survey, on which 

 work I was engaged during the past summer, and my 

 acknowledgments are due to Professor J. A. Holmes, State 

 Geologist, and Messrs. Harris, Ashe and Lewis, of the sur- 

 vey, for their co-operation in the work; also to Messrs. A. 

 S. McCreath and C. B. White for analyses which they 

 kindly furnished. Other analyses were made by Mr. 

 Charles Baskerville, assistant chemist to the survey, and 

 this may be understood where the name of the chemist is 

 not mentioned. 



All samples for analysis were dried at 212° F. 



The accompanying map has been prepared from the 

 revised sheets of the United States Geological Survey by 

 Mr. H. L. Harris, and will be referred to throughout this 

 paper. 



Ashe county lies in the extreme north-western part of 

 North Carolina, bordering on Tennessee and Virginia; it is 

 drained principally by the north and south forks of New 

 river and their tributaries, and is therefore on the eastern 

 edge of the great Mississippi drainage-basin. The country 

 is exceedingly rugged and mountainous, having an average 

 elevation of about 2,900 feet above sea-level. 



Jefferson, the county-seat, near the center of the county, 

 is forty-five miles nearly due south from the Norfolk & 

 Western Railroad at Marion, Va., and thirty miles north- 

 west from the Richmond & Danville Railroad at Wilkes- 

 boro, N. C. 



Geologically the ore-deposits described in this paper are 

 situated in the area of the crvstalline rocks, consistinof 

 chiefly of gneiss, hornblende-schist, and micaceous schists. 



These iron-ore deposits, owing to their present inaccessi- 

 bility, are practically entirely undeveloped. During the 



