Lesley.] i 44 [June 16, 
fathoms beneath the present surface. The solid granites are decomposed 
least ; the mica slates most. All contain iron, which has been peroxidised 
and hydrated, in the process of decomposition of the whole formation, 
and dyes the country soil with a deep red tint. Or, more properly 
speaking, the surface of the whole country is streaked with belts of red 
and gray soil, following the outcrops of the more weathered and the less 
weathered beds. But, even in the gray belts, the solid granite, or gneiss, 
or sand-rock, seldom appears at the surface, although outcrops of them 
can here and there be found ; and a number of these outcrops are desig- 
nated upon the map, close to, and on each side of, the Tuscarora ore-belt 
outcrop. The surface of the country, therefore, is a smooth, soft, undu- 
lating plain, broken by gentle vales, the bottoms of which are never more 
than one hundred feet below the plain, and commonly not more than half 
that depth. The roads show how readily the rock soil absorbs water and . 
dries off again. The soft, mouldered condition ofall the rock strata, to 
depths of 50 or 100 feet, is therefore easily understood. But the rapidity 
with which the erosion of the land goes on is surprising. An old bridge, 
built a century ago, over a stream near the Quaker Meeting House, and 
of course several feet above the water, is now buried to a depth of 6 feet 
beneath the surface of its little meadow. 
Two general results follow from this universal ancient rainwater decom- 
position of the surface of the country, tothe depth of the deep valley drain- 
age plane :— 
1. All sulphur, We., has been washed out of the ore-beds, leaving the 
ore remarkably pure. Whether the ore-beds, when followed down for 
hundreds of feet or yards into the earth, will be found to keep a notable 
percentage of sulphur, cannot now be known. But, whatever sulphur 
was originally combined with the iron, has been removed from the upper 
parts of the beds. 
2. The decomposition of the rock strata, which inclose the ore-beds, 
has weakened them so that extra care must be bestowed upon all shafts 
and tunnels sunk or driven to win the ore, to keep them safe for mining 
operations. When the more solid strata, at various depths beneath the 
surface, are reached, mining operations will be as simple and safe as in 
any other region. 
The hills being never more than about one hundred feet above the valley- 
bottoms, the ore-beds can be mined by horizontal self-draining adits, or 
tunnels, only at well selected points. But, seeing that the ore-beds run 
in straight lines for long distances, a large quantity of ore can be thus 
taken out, for some years to come, 
The belt of outcrop of ore-bearing rocks has a uniform breadth of sey- 
eral hundred yards, and, I believe, a uniform dip towards the northwest, 
or north-northwest ; although there are appearances (to be stated in de- 
tail hereafter) which would lead the casual spectator to conclude that the 
outercp was double, and not single; that is, that the belt is synclinal, the 
ore-beds descending from the southeast side, downwards, northwestward 
to a certain depth, and then rising again to the surface. But the general 
