Lesley.] «^t) j^jan. 2 and Feb. 6, 



Fig. 9 is a reduced copy of maps made by Mr. H. V. Booking, mining 

 manager of the Company, to show the position of shafts and direction of 

 tunnels executed under his direction, in a more systematic way. 



At the east end of the Old Bank, Mr. Booking did much sinking on 

 lower ground. One old shaft which had been abandoned at the depth 

 of 30 feet on account of water, he sunk 30 feet deeper to the sandstone 

 floor of the ore, which drained the mine. A cross-cut froin this shaft 75 

 feet long struck the ore descending (N. W.) but where it was nearly 

 level. Galleries were then driven and much ore won in an irregular way. 

 But the heavy spring rains of 1857 filled the works to the top of the 

 shaft. At this time the large deposit at McAtear's (West Pennington) 

 Bank was discovered. In 1865 a new shaft was sunk, in a dry season, a 

 little north of the caved-in works, reaching the bottom of the ore at 45 

 feet. The shaft was 60 feet deep, and a steam-pump kept it dry by two 

 or three hours work per day. A good vein of ore had been abandoned (on 

 account of water) in a smaller open cut, near the last mentioned shaft, 

 with only 3 or 4 feet of dirt covering to the ore. 



That the rich deposits of ore in the old open cut pass down northwest- 

 ward, in irregular but continuous floors and layei's between the clays, 

 was proven by galleries driven by Mr. Booking west from the pump-shaft, 

 see fig. 9. He describes these galleries as driven in wavy ore, meeting 

 several good bodies of ore. No pillar mining was done, as the sinkings 

 were merely tentative. 



In all this no account is made of anything but the better streaks of 

 hard lump or rock ore, which alone a small charcoal furnace is willing to 

 smelt. Great quantities of saleable ore and wash-ore are ignored. 



My assistant, Mr. Franklin Piatt, obtained the following imformation 

 on the ground while making his map : — 



Beginning at the Railroad, the first and smaller jjit (now filled with 

 water) 70 yards long, by 15 wide and 5 deep, yielded about 5000 cubic 

 yards of wash- ore, without any solid lump ore. Shaft No. 1, sunk near 

 it, (N. W.) is said to have passed through 



1. Top wash-ore 15 feet. 



2. Rich lump-ore 5 " 



3. Clay with little or no ore 25 " 



4. Good lump-ore 15 " 



the bottom not reported. Shaft No. 2, (W.) had lean wash-ore on top ; 

 clay to 40 feet ; good lump-ore thence to bottom at 50 feet. 



The main open cut is 230 yards long, with an average width of 35 

 yards, as shown in fig. 8 ; depth from 5 to 8 yards. Wash-ore, sometimes 

 lean, forms the wall of the pit, from the surface to an apparent depth of 

 15 feet. A shaft midway of the eastern edge, "struck a layer of feri'o- 

 manganese ore, 5 feet thick, at a depth of 15 feet." 



Two-thirds of the distance from the southern to the northern end of 

 the pit, a massive crop of half decomposed caloiferous sandrock charged 

 with moie or less of ore, juts from the wall, dipping gently northwest. 



