4 me 
Lesley. ] 498 [April 21, 
ous valleys, walled in at intervals with cliffs. The smaller streams head 
up in smooth valleys (of the upper limestones and slates of the Lower 
Silurian system) admirably fitted for railroad locations. But near their 
mouths, where they cut rapidly down through the lower limestones to 
flow into the cross streams, their beds are full of jagged rocks and their 
valleys difficult for cheap railroading. 
It is among these lower limestones that the beds of brown hematic iron 
ore lie.. For instance, the cliff at the river bank, just where the road 
from the west along the north bank comes to the ford at the mouth of 
Lick Run, is a mass of sandy limestone, near the bottom of the Lower 
Silurian system. Further up the north bank of the river, east of Lick 
Run, is a long limestone hill on which many pieces of the ore are scat- 
tered, some of them very large. There is a good chance here for the ex- 
istence of a valuable iron-ore deposit on a large scale. The ore is good. 
THE COAL FURTHER BAST. 
I made no detailed examination above Lick Run for a good many 
miles; and I have mentioned in a Summary Report the streams crossed 
by the coal beds in this interval. I will only add here, that some of these 
beds were reported to me as ten (10) feet thick. The six-foot bed may 
become thicker at points which I did not visit than it is where I saw it. 
The ‘Mouth of Indian’”’ is a thriving little village on the north bank 
of the Clinch where it enters Russell County. I surveyed this neighbor- 
hood carefully, because the coal beds here have been opened more exten- 
sively than elsewhere ; because they stand at a higher angle and give a 
series ; and because the downthrow is exhibited in a most curious and 
instructive manner. The river breaks through limestone just above In- 
dian Creek mouth, forming bluffs called the Cedar Bluffs. A dam was 
built here forty years ago out of red cedar logs which has never needed 
repairs. It is fifteen feet high and backs the water two miles. Middle 
Creek descends from the north and enters just below Indian Creek. 
Up Middle Creek are the coal mines. See the following map : 
armed 
pal B48 creek 
: ale cre 
Two miles further down the river, Big Creek runs across the upper end 
of the wide and fertile bottom called the ‘Rich Lands,’”’ at the farm of 
Mr. Gillespie. 
Two miles further west, a salt well, 354 feet deep, was sunk at the 
north edge of the river bottom, on Mr. Kendrick’s land, twenty-two (22) 
years ago, and, at 337 feet, went through 6.7 (six feet seven inches) of 
