MURPHRKE'S VALLEY; ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 51 



them showed ore of good quality, but they had not been dug 

 deep enough to show the thickness of either of them. A 

 good show of ore could be made here with little labor. Fifty 

 feet by slant surface measure, extended (as is usual) from 

 the top of No. 1 to the base of No. 3, thus including three 

 ore beds in a vertical depth of twenty feet. Should these 

 beds be here of usual thickness, they would aggregate over 

 nine feet of ore. Hence nearly half of this portion of the 

 Clinton is iron ore. 



Two hundred yards west of these openings another and 

 larger one was made on the third bed. This exposed a face 

 of ore 4 feet 8 inches. This ore is of good quality, soft fine 

 grained, color dark gray. It is very remarkable indeed that 

 the ore beds, especially this one, should change in volume 

 and quality so much and so rapidly. In less than a quar- 

 ter of a mile we have seen it increase one-half in thickness, 

 and change from dark shaly ore to hard limy ore ; then in 

 another quarter of a mile increase twenty-five inches in 

 thickness, become free from lime, soft, pulverulent, and of 

 good quality throughout. Changes in this bed are not 

 usually so rapid or so great, yet it is the most variable bed 

 of this formation, and has never yet been found exactly the 

 same for any great distance. 



On the E. V 4- of N. E. of S. 30 T. 12 R. 2 E. is a very fine 

 exposure of bed No. 1. A partial opening had been made 

 on it, but evidently not at the thickest place, or on the best 

 part of the bed. The opening however showed about four 

 feet of ore. Fifteen feet slant surface measure reached from 

 the top of this bed to the out-crop of No. 2. Both beds are 

 therefore comprised in seven feet vertical. The second bed 

 was only 12 inches thick, but the ore excellent, would assay" 

 about 50 per cent, the top bed 42 to 45 per cent. Both beds 

 could be very advantageously mined together, as there is 

 only a soft shaly parting of two teet between them. It was 

 very evident that a little farther along the mountain to the 

 N. E. the out-crop showed the bed to be heavier than 

 where it was opened and samples of ore were seen there of 

 higher grade than any seen in the openings. 



