MUKPHREE'S VALLEY ; ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 71 



and swept away. That stub end was all of it. In very 

 many places on this side of the valley, in the low places de- 

 nudation has cut below and swept away all the beds. In 

 the low grounds, if the beds cannot be seen, the probability 

 is that they do not exist. As a rule, the high grounds only 

 can be calculated on to yield much ore. Even they are 

 sometimes deceptive, as occasionally they may be near the 

 fault. An instance that occurred near this place will show 

 this. A speculator, who was trying to sell again, sunk a pit 

 on a good seam ot ore four feet thick. To show that it main- 

 tained its thickness and quality, he wished to cut it again 

 at the depth of 25 feet. He continued to dig, and at 14 feet 

 from the surface came to the fault, where the iron stopped. 

 These remarks are thrown in here, because this structure 

 not being generally understood, many have built high hopes 

 on iron prospects, which are visionary, and many have in- 

 vested money in such property, on which they will never 

 realize. 



In the N. E. of section 33, same township, some small 

 openings had been made, but not sufficiently deep to show 

 the thickness of the beds, or to identify them. No good ore 

 was seen in this section. A thin streak of Clinton strata, 

 but carrying very inferior ore, runs along the S. E. edge of 

 the brown ore in the S. E. i of 33, and the N. W. of S. 4, 

 T. 13, R. 2, E. It is again seen in the S. E. i of Sec. 5, but 

 unimportant both in quantity and quality. The space where 

 it should exist has been deeply eroded by a stream of water, 

 and probably the better portion of it has been swept away. 



Through sections 12 and 13 of T. 13, R. 1, E., there is 

 scarcely any sign of ore remaining. On a few higher points, 

 only a little can yet be seen... The Sparry or Cambrian 

 Limestone, which comes to the surface first in Sec. 5, T. 13, 

 R. 2, E., is now a prominent member ; and as the S. E. edge 

 of it is on the line of the great fault, the presence or ab 

 s ence of the Clinton can be clearly told. If the next mem- 

 ber adjoining this limestone is the Lower Siliceous, or the 

 LaGrange, then it is certain the Clinton has been engulfed 

 in the fault. If the space between these formations and the 

 4 



