HOCKING VALLEY. 655 



prietor of the furnace which demonstrated its excellence. It has pro- 

 duced a better iron when used alone than the Iron Point ore. 



There are, besides these, several other horizons of valuable ore in this 

 district. 



The limestone about seventy-five feet above the Great Vein contains 

 an important percentage of iron, and frequently carries a valuable ore 

 on its surface. 



In the shales directly b;neath the' Great Vein, there are, in places, 

 four horizons of ore, which show outcrops of from two to twelve inches, 

 and of good quality ; these have been but slightly exposed. 



Sixty feet balow the Great Vein, on Moss and Marshall's land, are two 

 exposures of ore, measuring, in one place, four feet, and in the other 

 seven feet in perpendicular height. The ore is mainly a red and yellow 

 ■ sesquioxide, solt, homogeneous, without lines of stratification, and with- 

 out seams or fissures. I have not found outcrops of it, how- 

 ever, in other places in this neighborhood, and it presents many 

 indications of being a recent local deposit from the chalybeate waters 

 coming down from the ores above. The following facts indicate that this 

 is its real character : It is on an exposed, sloping outcrop of rock, cap- 

 ped with shale; the deposit is not continuous; is made up of fragments 

 of shale, colored by the ore, and imbedded in the ore ; the latter is with- 

 out any lines of stratification, or of cleavage; in short, just such a deposit 

 as would occur in a mass of shale broken up by a slip, into which ferru- 

 ginous water penetrated, with a slight covering of earth above. 



About one hundred and sixty feet below the Great Vein, on the prop- 

 erty of the Straitsville Great Vein Coal and Iron Company, and near the 

 level of Monday Creek, is a fine- looking solid block ore, about eighteen 

 inches thick, in two layers, and resting on a blue calcareous shale. 

 This is the horizon of the blue cherty limestone, which here ordinarily 

 carries ore on its surface, and sometimes seems to be entirely replaced 

 by it. 



The Maxville Limestone, also, which is found a few miles further west, 

 often carries a considerable amount of good ore on its surface. Indeed, 

 all the limestones of this region are ferriferous, and, not unfrequently, 

 the limestone stratum is wholly wanting, and its place occupied by ore. 

 The shales directly above the Great Vein Coal contain ore in small, 

 rich nodules, and explorations on this horizon will probably disclose 

 valuable deposits. All of these ores appear to be nearly continuous 

 through the hills, and are of remarkable excellence around Straitsville 



