OF ARKANSAS. 0}3 



depends, in a great measure, on the proper location of the smelting 

 establishment. 



Considerable beds of excellent brown oxide of iron have been found in 

 this county, strewed about over the ground in loose blocks. The original 

 place of this ore is between c and d of the previous section. 



This ore not only occurs in the usual stalactitic botryoidal and mammil- 

 lary forms; but, also, crystallized; the form of the crystals being modified 

 Ictohedrons (pyramido-octohedrons), which seem to be pseudomorpha from 

 magnetic iron ore. 



By far the most usual form of this ore is a stalactitic or mam miliary 

 structure on one side, whilst the other side is flat, as if it might have been 

 attached to rocks, over and from which the ferruginous waters flowed and 

 dripped, gradually depositing their iron. 



The most abundant localities seen, for iron ore, were on the property of 

 Alfred Bevens & Co., on the waters of Williams creek, sections 23, 25 and 

 30, township 16 north, range 4 west. On section 23 this mineral has 

 assumed the form familiarly known amongst miners as " pot-ore," imbed- 

 ded in a red ferruginous clay, resting on dolomite. This bed is from two 

 to five feet thick. The upper part is sandy, the middle nearly free from 

 sand, and the lower part usually of excellent quality for smelting. The 

 surface of the ground, above this bed, is covered with a mixture of sili- 

 ceous, and good-working blocks of stalactitic ore. 



Alfred Bevens & Co. have erected a forge on Williams creek, one and 

 a half miles north-east of the zinc furnace at " Calamine," for working 

 this ore; it has two fires, and is driven by a good water-power. When 

 visited, this forge was undergoing thorough repairs, and preparations were 

 being made to introduce the hot blast in place of the cold blast, formerly 

 in use, by which alteration it was expected to increase the amount of 

 swaged bar iron manufactured from (500) five hundred to (1000) sixteen 

 hundred pounds per day. Though the quantity of iron produced at these 

 works is not great, owing to the mode of manufacture, which is wasteful 

 of ore, and especially so of fuel; yet it is of excellent quality and meets 

 with a ready sale on the spot, without seeking a market. 



Another very promising supply of iron ore, for a small forge, was seen 

 near Dr. John Bevens, township 15? range 3 west. 



On Big creek, a branch of Strawberry, there is a white cellular quartz- 

 ose rock found in abundance, intercalated amongst the sandstones of the 

 section of this county, which may a fiord good millstones; indeed, millstones 

 have been made out of it for some of the mills in the vicinity. A pair of 

 stones made from this rock, may be seen running in Jone's mill on Big 



