92 



of which, once occupying this little valley, may have possibly 

 been the source of the ore. 



The present excavation is only about 1 40 feet long, 40 wide, 

 and 40 deep. This deposit of ore was first brought to light, a few 

 years since, in sinking a well. 



Owing to the occurrence of much diluvial matter over the sur- 

 face of the narrow valleys which embrace the altered limestone, 

 it is highly probable that considerable bodies of the ore exist 

 where few or no indications at the surface betray its presence. 

 The prevalence of the mineral near the white limestone, under 

 circumstances that imply it to have come from a rather exten- 

 sive dissolution of that rock, holds out a prospect of finding it in 

 other localities besides the above. The explorer should carefully 

 note the signs of the removal of the altered limestone, by denuda- 

 tion or solution, in spots where the products of its destruction 

 would, from the features of the ground, be most likely to remain 

 in their usual form of a deep loamy ferruginous deposit. Such 

 places will be the broken slopes of hills and the basins in the cen- 

 tre of confined valleys. 



Hematitic brown iron ore occurs occasionally, though not in 

 extensive deposits, in the limestone valleys between Schooley's 

 and Scott's Mountains. It has been found, for example, though 

 in rather humble quantities, very pure, between Mansfield and An- 

 derson villages, not far from the Morris canal. It exists likewise 

 in more abundance in connexion with the belt of limestone which 

 forms the valley of the Delaware river, between Belvidere and 

 Easton, having been excavated to some extent in the vicinity of 

 Foul Rift. Much of the ore in this neighbourhood belongs to the 

 highly valuable stalactitic variety usually denominated fipe ore. 



Respecting the geological position of the brown or hematitic 

 iron ore, wc may give it as a general rule, admitting of no 

 exception in New Jersey, that it abounds only in the highly 

 ferruginous soils, which either immediately cover this limestone 

 formation, or which lie closely adjacent to it. In Pennsylvania 

 and some of the other States such are not its invariable rela- 

 tions, as several of the other rocks of the older secondary series 

 present us with extensive deposits of the same species of ore. 



Sulphate of Barytes. — West of Newton about two and a half 

 miles, there occurs a narrow vein of the sulphate of barytes, 



