OF ARKANSAS. 213 
depends, in a great measure, on the proper location of the smelting 
establishment. 
Consider able beds of excellent brown oxide of iron have been found in 
this county, strewed about over the ground in loose blocks. The original 
place of this‘ore is between c and d of the previous section. 
This ore not only occurs in the usual stalactitic botryoidal and mammil- 
lary forms; but, also, crystallized; the form of the crystals being modified 
octohedrons (pyramido-octohedrons), which seem to be pseudomorphs from 
magnetic iron ore, 
By far the most usual form of this ore is a stalactitic or mammillary 
structure on one side, whilst the other side is flat, as if it might have been 
attached to rocks, over and from which the ferruginous waters flowed and 
dripped, gradually depositing their iron. 
The most abundant localities seen, for iron ore, were on dhe property of 
Alfred Bevens & Co., on the waters of Williams creek, sections 23, 25 and 
30, township 16 north, range 4 west. On section 25 this mineral has 
assumed the form familiarly known amongst miners as “ pot-ore,” imbed- 
ded in a red ferruginous clay, resting on dolomite. This bed is from two 
to five feet thick. The upper part is sandy, the middle nearly free from 
sand, and the lower part usually of excellent quality for smelting. The 
surface of the ground, above this bed, is covered with a mixture of sili- 
ceous, and good-working blocks of stalactitic ore. 
Alfred Bevens & Co. have erected a forge on Williams creek, one and 
a half miles north-east of the zinc furnace at “ Calamine,” for working 
this ore; it has two fires, and is driven by a good water-power. When 
visited, this forge was undergoing thorough repairs, and preparations were 
being made to introduce the hot blast in place of the cold blast, formerly 
in use, by which alteration it was expected to increase the amount of 
swaged bar iron manufactured from (500) five hundred to (1600) sixteen 
hundred pounds per day. Though the quantity of iron produced at these 
works is not great, owing to the mode of manufacture, which is wasteful 
of ore, and especially so of fuel; yet it is of excellent quality and meets 
with a ready sale on the spot, without seeking a market. 
Another very promising supply of iron ore, for a small forge, was seen 
near Dr. John Bevens, township 15? range 3 west. 
On Big creek, a branch of Strawberry, there is a white cellular quartz- 
ose rock found in abundance, intercalated amongst the sandstones of the 
section of this county, which may afford good millstones; indeed, millstones 
have been made out of it for some of the mills in the vicinity. <A pair of 
stones made from this rock, may be seen running in Jone’s mill on Big 
