iv 
98 GEOLOGICAL RECONNOISSANCE 
the attention of the iron manufacturer. Iron is found here in quantities 
which might be sufficient to supply a smelting furnace. An attempt was 
made, in this vicinity, to establish iron works; but, in consequence of the 
death of Belcher, one of the principal parties interested, the enterprise 
was never fully carried out. 
In the high ridge dividing the waters of the Osage fork of King’s river 
from Piney, the succession was as follows: 
1. Cherty sandstone. 
2. Encrinital limestones. 
3. A great mass of chert, replaced sometimes by sandstone. 
4. Magnesian limestones, interstratified with some sandstone. 
At Stevens’ mill, on Piney creek, the encrinital limestone is underlaid 
by 60 to 80 feet of sandstone. 
The soil, derived from the cherty sandstone, forming the summit of the 
above “divide,” supports a growth of pine. 
On the ridge between Piney creek and the Dry fork of King’s river, the 
strata of the preceding section appear to have dipped considerably 
towards the south-west, so that they lie lower in the ridges, and are capped 
with white, subcarboniferous limestone and sandstone, overlying the cherty 
sandstone of the preceding section. 
In descending from these strata to the Howard farm, on the Dry fork of 
King’s river, a great mass of chert was passed over. 
No black shale was visible in any of the sections in this part of Carroll 
county. 
The rock in the bed of the Dry fork of King’s river, at Howard’s farm, 
is light-grey limestone and chert, at least 50 feet in thickness, and 
apparently of subcarboniferous date; but, if so, there must be a rapid dip 
of the strata between the Piney and Dry forks of King’s river. 
Some lead ore is said to have been plowed up in Howard’s field. 
A large spirifer was found in the limestone of the Dry fork, allied to 
Spirifer striatus, and casts of Orthis crinistria in the overlying chert, both 
of which species belong to the subcarboniferous era, and, therefore indicate 
the age of these rocks. 7 
In passing from the Dry fork to the main branch of King’s river, a ridge 
of about 330 feet in height was passed over. At the base of this ridge, is 
the aforementioned light-grey limestone, 50 feet or more in thickness; over 
this is a slope of chert, containing casts of Orthis crinistria, surmounted 
by sandstone, which forms the top of the ridge, where we passed over it 
into Madison county. 
