6o ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 



body of ore. In one of the little drifts, out of which apparently the 

 greatest part of the rich ore has been taken, the rock seems barren on 

 the right hand, and on the left, before you, and, strangest of all, under 

 your feet. There is no vein; and yet, while the ore occurred pocket-like, 

 it does not lie segregated in any wise from the containing rock, but 

 passes into it on every side by imperceptible gradations. Appearances 

 at some sjDOts suggested the idea that the common rock of the mountain 

 had been impregnated by the vapor of metallic iron rising from below at 

 points where fissures and seams in the country rock permitted it. If this 

 theory be correct, while there must be a large body of iron somewhere 

 down below, all the ore anywhere near the surface would be in chimneys 

 of entirely capricious distribution. 



Pierinont. On the road from Haverhill to Piermont, running due south-east from 

 Haverhill Corner, a mile and a half from the village, a ledge of mica schist crosses the 

 road, whose strike is N. 25° E., and the dip- 45° N. N. W. Three miles out, a second 

 ledge of the same rock crosses, having the same strike and dip, but here becomes more 

 quartzose. This ledge shows striae running 10° west of north. Three and three quar- 

 ters miles out, a third ledge crosses, of the same rock, in which are quarries of flag- 

 stones and whetstones, the latter known as " Pike's quarry." The excavation here on 

 the south side of the road shows the rock striking due north, and dipping 45° W. 



Four and a half miles from Haverhill, in the north-eastern part of Piermont, East- 

 man's brook passes through the depression between Iron Ore mountain and the north- 

 ern extension of Piermont mountain. At the falls in this passage is a saw-mill. That 

 part of the ridge north of the stream, in which alone mining has been done, is likewise 

 known by the name of Cross's hill. The first of the old workings, made thirty years 

 ago, is in the open pasture, a few rods below the saw-mill and about thirty feet above 

 the road, from which it is visible. A small outcrop of the ledge has been entered here 

 to the depth of a couple of feet. About 70 feet above this in the edge of the woods is 

 a second working, the most extensive, apparently, whicli was made. Here the ledge 

 dips 25° S. S. W., with an outcrop of 12 feet perpendicular, in which the working was 

 made laterally some 8 or 10 feet. The mountain, following the same general strike 

 as this ledge, is on its north-west side seamed with numerous parallel outcrops, most 

 of which lie above the one which has been worked. The summit is 250 feet above 

 working No. 2 ; and from this point the ledge can be seen seaming Piermont mountain 

 in the same manner on the south side of the stream, a quarter of a mile distant. Fol- 

 lowing the ridge north-easterly, about 50 rods from the end summit and some little 

 distance below the ridge line, in the woods, is working No. 3. Half a mile north-east 

 of the summit, in the edge of the open pasture, near tlie northern end of a small pond, 

 is working No. 4. Here a cut has been made into the ledge transversely from a point 



