10.2 GEOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE 



ley of King's river. The conglomerate has, also, a considerable mass of 

 ferruginous shale overlying it; and the associate sandstones of the mill- 

 stone grit series are also charged with oxide of iron; indeed, some of 

 these ferruginous layers appear to contain iron enough to be entitled to 

 rank as ores, and were they not too siliceous, might be profitably reduced 

 to iron. 



A few miles south of Huntsville, the road is in many places strewed 

 with white water-worn quartzy pebbles, derived from the disintegration 

 of the conglomerate rock which lies in the hill above. 



The soil here is generally red, from the quantity of iron washed into it 

 from the shales and ferruginous sandstones of the adjacent hillsides. 



About 15 feet of black shale are exposed in the banks of the spring 

 branch of War Eagle, two miles below Huntsville. This shale encloses 

 hard and heavy kidney-shaped masses of carbonate of iron, in the center 

 of which particles of white iron pyrites are found, which have been mis- 

 taken for silver ore. Here, a considerable quantity of good iron ore could 

 be obtained, though not enough, by itself, to supply a furnace; but, no 

 doubt, other localities of the same ore can be disclosed, which, together, 

 might afford sufficient. In fact, the symptoms of the presence of iron are 

 so general in the rocks of this vicinity, under the conglomerate, as to ren- 

 der it a locality well worthy the attention of the iron master and the 

 owners of property. This mass of shale is covered with flaggy sandstone, 

 and is, most likely, the equivalent of the Dotson black shale and flag- 

 stone of Warton's creek. The strata dip, here, to the south-east. 



A qualitative analysis of the water obtained at the head of Kimble's 

 creek, 4 miles from Huntsville, was made, and gave, as its principal con- 

 stituents: 



Bi-carbonate of lime. 



Bi-carbonate of magnesia. 



Bi-carbonate of the oxide of iron. 



Chloride of sodium. 



Chloride of magnesium. 



Small quantities of sulphate of soda. 



It is a weak, saline chalybeate, possessing mild laxative, and tonic pro- 

 perties. 



At our encampment on Holman's creek, 2 miles north-west of Hunts- 

 ville, the Archimedes limestone occurs in ledges on its banks, underlaid 

 by black shales. 



The same limestone, with its accompanying shales, occurs two or three 

 miles from Phillips' on the road to Osage spring. 



A few inches of coal are said to have been discovered some distance 



