MURPHREE'S VALLEY; ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 105 



is exposed only over a space of 20 or 30 yards long, and ap- 

 parentJy 15 feet thick. No excavations have been made on 

 it, and no safe opinion can be given of its contents. Its 

 place is in, or closely connected with, the yellow magnesian 

 limestone, at the 4th limonite horizon, or base of the Trenton. 



Other bodies of this ore may exist farther down the valley 

 to the southwest. The red hills on the Reese, Cowden and 

 Higginbotham places, strongly suggest its vicinity; but the 

 base of the Trenton is here beneath the surface; denudation 

 has not cut down to the iron bearing horizon. 



Near Village Springs, in S. 28, T. 14, R. 1 West, where 

 the base of the Trenton is seen good limonite in large 

 chunks was seen, but the quantity appears to be inconsider- 

 able. 



Of the limonites lying at a higher level on the west side 

 of the valley, the best out crop is in S. 16, T. 12, R. 2, E., on 

 the east side of the Calvert Fork of the Little Warrior. 

 Large masses of very good ore are seen here in close con- 

 nection with, but below the LaGrange sandstone. The ore is 

 very dark colored, apparently carrying some admixture of 

 manganese ; this would reasonably be expected as this the 

 6th limonite horizon very nearly coincides with the man- 

 ganese horizon in this valley. The ore bank has not been 

 opened, and the natural exposure of ore is not sufficient to 

 warrant the expectation of a large bed of it existing here. 

 A few miles to the S. W., at this horizon is found a persist- 

 ent bed of red chalk or red slaty ore, which seems in the 

 main to have replaced the limonite. The ore is a lively red 

 color, firm, slaty structure ; smooth, fine grained, with silky 

 lustre. It would be valuable if sufficient quantity exists, 

 but so far as seen the bed or seam was only from six- to 

 eighteen inches thick. More or less of it was seen for two 

 miles along Sand Valley, but mainly in S. 25 T. 12 R. 2 E. 

 South west of this section none of it was seen, only small 

 bunches and specimens of limonite mark this horizon to the 

 S. W. end of the valley. 



At the N. E. corner of S. 3, T. 13, R. 1, E., there is a fine 

 exposure in a perpendicular face of the LaGrange sandstone 



