1874.1 J-^^ [Lesley. 



town lias been similar. But at these localities tlie gentle dip has its 

 bearing upon the economy of miaing, and perhaps upon the question of 

 depth to which the softening of the fossil limestone into soft fossil ore has 

 gone. I say perhaps, because it was Mr. Rogers' fixed opinion that the 

 fossil ore would not be found fit for mining operations along those runs 

 of outcrop where the beds stood at a steep angle, or vertical. This 

 opinion must be set aside, since the long horisontal gangways, at water 

 level, at Bedford, have yielded the soft ore in a perfect condition at a 

 depth of several hundred feet vertically beneath the outcrop. 



It is safe therefore to expect, iu the ten or eleven miles of ore-range 

 to find one or more of the beds at other place, of workable thickness 

 and in good condition, with an average breast above water level of from 

 200 to 400 feet. If only 18 inches of proper ore can be got from all five 

 beds, along the whole 10|- miles, there exists practically 925,000 cubic 

 yards of the ore above water level. If the average thicknesses mined 

 at Frankstown extend to Tyrone city, then there exists in the four 

 miles of mountain side along the Pennsylvania Railway alone, and above 

 water level alone, 42 to 64 inches X '7,040 x 100 = 2,464,000 to 3,731,- 

 200, = say three millions of cubic yards of ore.* 



It is not to be expected that all the beds can be mined at anyone place ; 

 but a million of tons of good merchantable soft fossil ore to be won from 

 the southwest division of the Lyon, Shorb & Co.'s lands, abone water level 

 cannot be an unreasonable estimate. 



This ore is greatly esteemed and extensively used by all the furnaces 

 of Pennsylvania which can get it. as an enriching flux for leaner iron- 

 stones, and as a fusable mixture for refractory highgrade magnetites. 

 At Frankstown and elsewhere it has furnished the greater part of the 

 bui'den ; and at other furnaces it is mixed in large proportions with 

 brown hematites. It always holds lime in the condition of undissolved 

 fossil shells, and works kindly with the sandy rock fossil (a) of the same 

 (Upper Silurian) formation. 



Note. March 4, 1874. Mr. Stewart has just made the important dis- 

 covery, by running-in horisontally a monkey-drift, west of Tyrone Sta- 

 tion, that four layers of soft fossil ore occur there in a space of seven 

 feet, measuring respectively 18, 10, 5 and 2 inches. This affords nearly 

 the normal quantity of 40 inches, and more than the quantity required 

 for profitable exploitation. It is an especially important trial work, in- 

 asmuch as it casts an encouraging light on the untested and hitherto 

 despised range of outcrop east of Tyrone. J. P. L. 



* Mr. Rogers' formula of 50,000 tons of ore from each running' mile of outcrop was 

 based upon his then assumed maximum depth of no more than 30 yards for the soft ore 

 in a stratum 18 inches thick, two tons of ore going to a cubic yard. 



