8o JOURNAL OF THE 



summer of 1890 considerable private prospecting was car- 

 ried on throughout the county, and much of our knowledge 

 concerning the ore-beds is due to this. Many of the open- 

 ings, however, have caved in to such an extent that but 

 little can be seen at present. More than fifty years ago 

 there were a number of Catalan forges throughout the 

 county, which smelted these ores into a very superior tough 

 iron. One of these now known as Paisley's forge, at the 

 mouth of Helton creek, is still in operation, and made in 

 1890 from twenty to thirty tons of bar-iron, used locally 

 for wagon-tires, horse-shoes, etc. At present there are no 

 mining operations whatever going on, excepting in a ver}- 

 small superficial way to supply the Helton forge. 



The territory to be described in this paper, as including 

 the principal ore-deposits of Ashe county, embraces about 

 150 square miles. The ores are principally magnetites, 

 chemically suitable for the manufacture of Bessemer pig- 

 iron. Some brown hematites and red specular ores are 

 also found; but, although of excellent quality, their quan- 

 tity will hardly place them in the category of economic 

 raw materials. 



The structure of the magnetic beds is decidedly lenticu- 

 lar, and as such they are distributed over a rather undefina- 

 ble area, though there is some regularity in the direction 

 of their outcrops, which have a general trend north-east 

 and south-west. 



In the following I shall divide them into three main 

 belts, called according to the local nomenclature: The Bal- 

 lon or River belt, the Red Hill or Poison Branch belt, and 

 the Titaniferous belt. 



Starting along the north-eastern extremities of these 

 belts I shall describe the openings along the outcrops in 

 regular order towards the south-west. By reference to the 

 accompanying map their locations and relation to each 

 other can be more easily comprehended than from mere 

 description. 



