54 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 



inches. The quality of this ore is generally very poor; a 

 few inches at the top of the bed is better than the balance, 

 but even this is very low grade. 



At the. S. W. foot of this high point, there is a peculiar 

 feature. The strata are flexed downwards so much that the 

 Clinton is beneath the level of the valley. It has disap- 

 peared, and immediately behind its place the Lower Siliceous 

 rocks alone make the mountain, which thus continues un- 

 broken. It presents the appearance of a great sink in the 

 mountain, though probably a cross fault exists here. None 

 of the edges of the strata being exposed, so as to show dis- 

 placement, it cannot be positively stated that this is the 

 fact. But several irregularities near here, and along a 

 North and South line crossing here, show unusual disturb- 

 ance. About one-fourth of a mile south of this sink is a 

 ridge trending southwards, in part composed of Clinton 

 strata, with Trenton rocks intervening between it and Red 

 Mountain. A little over a quarter of a mile north by west 

 from this place, on the western foot of the mountain, there 

 is a lone peak of Coal Measure rocks, nearly 100 feet high, 

 with Carboniferous lime rock at its base. It stands alone 

 nearly a quarter of a mile from Sand Mountain, with the 

 narrow Sand Valley between. About one mile from this 

 sink, north, is a ridge rising 250 feet above Sand Valley, 

 and trending across it in an E. and W. direction. It rises 

 up steep and narrow, its top only 20 to 30 feet broad. It is 

 mainly composed of broken up Lagrange Sandstone, with 

 Lower Siliceous shales at its base, but its strata do not ap- 

 pear to have the usual dip. So far as could be seen its 

 strata are horizontal, or incline a little to the N. E. This 

 was mainly shown by a thin sliatum of red chalk iron ore, 

 almost at its top. This stratum, about six inches thick at the 

 western end, increases to nearly two feet at the eastern. It 

 runs nearly horizontal in that direction, but showed a slight 

 dip to the northeast. This stratum of iron ore was often 

 seen and traced in the Sand Valley, among the upper mem- 

 bers of the Lagrange (Oxmoor) sandstone. This sharp ridge 

 had evidently been forced up at least 250 feet above its 



