MURPHREE'S VALLEY; ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 69 



above. The Clinton rocks are very uniform in texture, and 

 are all thin or shaly. Toward the ba=>e side, where they join 

 the Trenton, they are harder and of a bluish color. In all 

 other parts they are reddish brown. The race had not been 

 cut at right angles with the strike, but quartering and 

 meandering, hence measurements were not made. But the 

 thickness of the strata exposed was estimated to be 200 feet. 

 In this estimate the position of the Black Shale was assumed 

 to be in a deep hole below the mill. But the most impor- 

 tant and interesting thing here is the iron ore. It all lies in 

 two beds, or rather in one bed with a parting of three feet. 

 It is at about one-third the thickness of the Clinton from 

 tne top, and therefore occupies about the game position as 

 the third bed in the upper part of the mountain. The upper 

 part of it is ^0 feet thick, the lower part 9 feet thick, with a 

 rock and shaly parting of three feet between. Whole thick- 

 ness of the bed 32 feet, ivith 29 feet of ore. This may have 

 been two beds formed here very close together, but as the 

 ore is the same in each, both in quality and structure, it is 

 thought proper to consider both parts as one bed. This ore 

 is strictly first class ore-. It will average over 50 per cent, 

 of metallic iron. The ore is partly lenticular or flattened 

 grain, and partly round grain, closely compacted together; 

 heavy and solid, but not hard. It is not identical with any 

 of the beds hitherto described in Red Mountain; its ore is 

 different irom any of them, though nearly identical with 

 some yet to be described in the 8. E. side of the valley. 

 What has become of all of the other Red Mountain beds '. 

 Why is it that only one mammoth bed exists here in the 

 jClintoa formation '. Our knowledge of the geological struc- 

 ture is not yet sufficient to explain these apparent anomalies. 



The exposures of the Clinton ores on the S. E. side of the 

 valley. The examination of the Red Hematite ores on the 

 south-east side of this valley next demand attention. 



Beginning at the head, or upper end of the valley, we 

 find exposures of this ore in regular order, till we reach 

 Green Wade's in S. 36. T. 12 of R. 3, east. From this point 

 it does not appear again on the surface for fifteen miles 



