60 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 
body of ore. In one of the little drifts, out of which apparently the 
greatest part of the rich ore has been taken, the rock seems barren on 
the right hand, and on the left, before you, and, strangest of all, under 
your feet. There is no vein; and yet, while the ore occurred pocket-like, 
it does not lie segregated in any wise from the containing rock, but 
passes into it on every side by imperceptible gradations. Appearances 
at some spots suggested the idea that the common rock of the mountain 
had been impregnated by the vapor of metallic iron rising from below at 
points where fissures and seams in the country rock permitted it. If this 
theory be correct, while there must be a large body of iron somewhere 
down below, all the ore anywhere near the surface would be in chimneys 
of entirely capricious distribution. 
Piermont. On the road from Haverhill to Piermont, running due south-east from 
Haverhill Corner, a mile and a half from the village, a ledge of mica schist crosses the 
road, whose strike is N. 25° E., and the dip 45° N. N. W. Three miles out, a second 
ledge of the same rock crosses, having the same strike and dip, but here becomes more 
quartzose. This ledge shows strie running 10° west of north. Three and three quar- 
ters miles out, a third ledge crosses, of the same rock, in which are quarries of flag- 
stones and whetstones, the latter known as ‘‘ Pike’s quarry.” The excavation here on 
the south side of the road shows the rock striking due north, and dipping 45° W. 
Four and a half miles from Haverhill, in the north-eastern part of Piermont, East- 
man’s brook passes through the depression between Iron Ore mountain and the north- 
ern extension of Piermont mountain. At the falls in this passage is a saw-mill. That 
part of the ridge north of the stream, in which alone mining has been done, is likewise 
known by the name of Cross’s hill. The first of the old workings, made thirty years 
ago, is in the open pasture, a few rods below the saw-mill and about thirty feet above 
the road, from which it is visible. A small outcrop of the ledge has been entered here 
to the depth of a couple of feet. About 70 feet above this in the edge of the woods is 
a second working, the most extensive, apparently, which was made. Here the ledge 
dips 25° S. S. W., with an outcrop of 12 feet perpendicular, in which the working was 
made laterally some 8 or Io feet. The mountain, following the same general strike 
as this ledge, is on its north-west side seamed with numerous parallel outcrops, most 
of which lie above the one which has been worked. The summit is 250 feet above 
working No. 2; and from this point the ledge can be seen seaming Piermont mountain 
jn the same manner on the south side of the stream, a quarter of a mile distant. Fol- 
lowing the ridge north-easterly, about 50 rods from the end summit and some little 
distance below the ridge line, in the woods, is working No. 3. Half a mile north-east 
of the summit, in the edge of the open pasture, near the northern end of a small pond, 
is working No. 4. Here a cut has been made into the ledge transversely from a point 
