112 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA. 



THE GEOLOGICAL POSITION OF THE MANGANESE ORES. 



Is in the Lower Siliceous group, from 50 to 150 feet above the 

 Black Shale. Occasionally traces of them have been seen 

 as high up as the LaGrange Sandstone. 



DETAILS OF THE OCCURRENCES OF MANGANESE ORES. 



A little southwest of where the Locust Fork of the Warrior 

 crosses the valley, and on the N, W. side of Rsd Mountain, 

 begins the first prominent exposures of these ores. They 

 were first seen near the line between Sects. 14 and 15, T. ll r 

 R. 3 East. The formation was clearly manganiferous. It 

 soon presented a great body of manganiferous chert rock. 

 This is a massive rock, apparently ten to fifteen feet thick, 

 composed of chert, and compact quartz, cemented together,, 

 and commingled with oxide of manganese. These great 

 bowlders are spotted with blue and white, as the seams of 

 oxide show on the surface, or commingled with tints a 

 light blue grey color. The thickness of this ledge of man- 

 ganiferous chert could not be ascertained, as the dip wa& 

 nearly the same as the slant of the surface, Ten to fifteen 

 feet of it were seen, but it may be much thicker. A gorge 

 18 to 20 feet deep had here been washed out, the principal 

 exposure of this rock is along its bed. On the west side of 

 this gorge, and extending nut over the top of the slant, to 

 the S. W. and out into level ground, is a great bed of pul- 

 verulent black oxide of manganese, about four feet thick, 

 and covering about an acre of ground. Many pits and holes 

 had been dug in the " curious black stuff," long before its 

 composition was known to the diggers. From all these 

 holes it was seen, in depth, and quality to be very uniform^ 

 and to carry throughout the mass numerous small chunks 

 of pyrolusite, and manganite. 



These chunks are generally small, seldom more than two 

 or three pounds weight, [well rounded, and smooth on the 

 surface, lying principally in seams and layers, and indicat- 

 ing growth and formation, rather than decay. Near the 



