HOCKING VALLEY. 709 



a very important horizon, carrying large quantities of excellent ore, the 

 limestone being also ferriferous, making a desirable flux, and appearing 

 to be quite persistent. It often seems to be wanting on its proper hori- 

 zon, as it and most of the limestones here are quite soluble, and, at the 

 outcrops, have often been dissolved out. 



The Bessemer or Buchtel ore has a fine development on the Ogden 

 Furnace property, showing in one place eighteen and in another thirty 

 inches of ore of a great excellence. It is remarkably free from earthy 

 matter, contains a large percentage of sesquioxide, and, according to an 

 analysis made for the company in Detroit, the unroasted ore yields fifty 

 per cent, of metallic iron. It extends through the hills to Bessemer and 

 westward to Haydenville, where it ranges in thickness from two feet six 

 inches to four feet six inches, according to reported measurements, which 

 seem to be reliable. It is there, as well as on the Ogden Furnace prop- 

 erty, ninety feet above the Great Vein. 



On the Akron Iron Company's property (Bessemer) a drift has been 

 carried into the hill far enough to disclose the full body of an ore which 

 fills a space of six feet three inches, and at the face of the entry is 

 equivalent to about five feet of solid ore. It is in large nodules bedded 

 in clay, containing both calcareous and silicious matter, wasting more 

 in roasting than the Iron Point ore, but leaving a rich, good-looking ore 

 when calcined. Experimental drifts have been made at various places 

 which indicate that a thick stratum of this ore extends through the 

 whole hill. It is regarded here as the equivalent of the Shawnee ore, 

 but it is apparently on a lower horizon and below the Bayley's Run coal. 



Just before the great depression in the iron industries the Akron Iron 

 Company erected at Akron, in Summit county, a fine furnace in close 

 proximity to their rolling-mill, and purchased coal lands in this field 

 with the intention of shipping coal, ore, and limestone to Akron for the 

 emelting of pig-iron. This was to be prepared in their rolling-mill for 

 their extensive manufactories of mowers and reapers at Akron and Can- 

 ton, the stock in the dififerent companies being owned largely by the 

 same persons. Compelled to put their furnace out of blast soon after its 

 erection, they have now purchased valuable lands at Bessemer, and are 

 engaged in removing and re-erecting their furnace at that place, where, 

 in place of the long transportation by railroads of all the raw material, 

 which they originally contemplated, tramways from the drifts carried 

 into this coal, ore, and limestone can be connected directly with the fur- 

 nace, and all the raw material delivered at the stack without rehandling. 

 The removal of the rolling-mill to this property will naturally follow 

 the successful smelting of their iron ore, and it is quite probable that 



