1874.] 



37 



[Lesley. 



Some of this rock is genuine iron ore ; the rest ferriferous or mei-ely 

 ferruginous sandrock. The excavated ore lay over, under and around 

 tliis rock, having been freed from other similarly di])ping, but more 

 ferriferous and more dissoluble strata.* It is a place where the genesis 

 of our brown hematites may be studied to advantage. 



Ore was found in some of the shafts to the south-west of the main open 

 cut. 



The whole N. E. and S. "W. extent of this uninterrupted expanse of 

 wash ore, from the railway track to the shafts last mentioned, is about 

 500 yards, and its width, say, 100 yards. A considerable percentage may 

 be too lean to wash.f Estimating the depth of soft and hard ore at 

 10 yards, we have 500,000 cubic yards. Rejecting one half for leanness, 

 we are safe in supposing 250,000 cubic yards of ore in sight. 



Fig. 10. 



^teit, JObato o?\K£. AhTest^intvuuxvc^ 



O^C<A/ W) ^SOAAnU— Malt 



Wo. 2. The West Pennington Banks. An interval of half a mile 

 separates this open cut from the East Pennington Banks last described, f 

 The railroad, curving across a slight hollow in the side of the ridge, 

 see local map, fig. 3, approaches within two hundred yards of the north 



* The strike of this rock is across the open cut, here very narrow. The ore of the 

 northern end of tlie cut is therefore above these rocks, and that of the southern portion 

 of the cut belongs below these rocks. 



•f The " black ore,' which is very rich, is in some jjlaees abundant ; in other places it 

 becomes very thin. 



J Mr. Backing, speaking of this interval, says that after passing a low place at Mc- 

 Atear's, the main body of good ore was discovered in 1857, at the surface, on ground into 

 which old pits had been sunk, the miners having previously condemned the whole local- 

 ity. The very rich deposit then discovered lay higher up the slope of the ridge, and 

 had thus been entirely missed. 



Mr. Piatt remarks : " What the original shape of the ore on the face of this ridge was, 

 it is now hard to say ; but the two Pennington ore deposits are at present separate and 

 distinct, not necessarily connected in any way. I presume that the original limits 

 embraced them both, and much of the ore lying between them which is now gone." 



This agrees with what is seen at the Pennsylvania Ore Banks, to be described here- 

 after, and it is a strong argument in favor of the wholly outcrop character of these 

 brown hematite deposits. On the other hand, the ore has never been properly followed 

 to the deep, and the distance in that direction to which the dissolution of the ferriferous 

 limestones and the precipitation of peroxide of iron has extended is unknown. 



