48 



GEOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE 



on township 20 north, range 18 east of the 5th principal meridian, at what 

 is known as McCarty's diggings; but the ore lies too close to the lower 

 hard sandstone to give much prospect of productiveness in this rock. In 

 the upper sections of the ridges, lying between these McCarty's diggings 

 and the New York location, amongst the magnesian limestones, more or 

 less ore may be expected to occur; more especially, since pieces of " float- 

 mineral " have been found, at intervals, between the two locations. 



A vein of galena of several inches traverses the limestone forming the 

 bed of Jennings' creek, about one-and-a-half miles above the forks of 

 that stream, at what is known as the "Molton orSewell diggings." Here 

 the course of the vein appears to be nearly north-west and south-east. 

 Several shallow pits have also been sunk on the adjacent hill-side, where, 

 I understand, small pieces of lead ore were discovered. The rock here, 

 is a close-textured, cherty limestone, very irregular in its fracture and bed- 

 ding, and is a member of the same formation in which the lead ore occurs 

 on Sugar Loaf creek, but modified in its lithological character; since, at 

 the latter locality, the limestone is an easily decomposing rock, weather- 

 ing and splitting up like hydraulic limestone. The composition of this 

 rock will be seen by the analysis in the Chemical Report. 



There is considerable variety in the lithological character of the differ- 

 ent strata composing the hills in the lead region of Marion county, on the 

 waters of Sugar Loaf creek, as may be seen by the following section, 

 taken about half w r ay between the Hudson farm and the head of Sugar 

 Loaf creek. 



SECTION OF STRATA OF LOWER SILURIAN DATE 

 IN THE LEAD REGION OF MARION COUNTY; WA- 

 TERS OF SUGAR LOAF CREEK. 



0) 

 fa 



307 



328 



CH CH 



CH 

 CH CH 



CH 

 CH CH 



CH CH 



CH 



CH CH 



CH 



CH CH 



CH 



CH CH 



Space concealed with fragments of chert, 

 hornstone, and other varieties of flinty 

 siliceous rocks. 



White encrinital marble rock. 



Space concealed with fragments of chert 

 and hornstone on the slope. 



fa 



37 



4 



Sb 



It will be observed by 

 the subjoined section, in 

 the lead region of Marion 

 county, taken in the hills 

 adjacent to the head of 

 Sugar Loaf creek, that, 

 in the space of 307 feet 

 of the section, considera- 

 ble variation is observa- 

 ble in the composition of 

 the various beds of which 

 it is made up. 



The formation, as a 

 whole, is perfectly analo- 

 gous to the strata north 

 of the Wisconsin river, 



