REPORT OF THE STATE GEOLOGIST. lxi 



show that there are several belts within which valuable deposits are 

 known or may be discovered. 



The most eastern of these is the Babyhead belt, and the outcrops fol- 

 low a line bearing southeastward, west of Babyhead Postoffice and Lone 

 Grove, and coming out southward very near the Wolf crossing of the 

 Colorado Kiver. Probably the best exposure of this belt is in the Baby- 

 head Mountains, and its northern boundary does not cross the Llano 

 County line. To the southeast good results may be expected as far as 

 Miller's Creek. 



A second belt west of this occupies the area between Packsaddle and 

 Riley mountains, and stretches northwestward by Llano town toward 

 Valley Spring. Ores of value have been found in many places in this 

 belt, the surface indications of the underlying beds of magnetite being 

 hematite or limonite. 



The third, or the Iron Mountain belt, is that on which the greatest 

 amount of work has been expended, and in two places in it large and 

 valuable masses of magnetic iron have been exposed. The bed is most 

 persistent, and can be traced for miles. At Iron Mountain a shaft has 

 been sunk down the side of the iron outcrop to the depth of fifty feet, 

 and a cross-cut of twenty-two feet cut in the lead. The quantity of 

 magnetite and hematite exposed here is very great. About three miles 

 south of Llano City considerable prospecting has been done by drilling 

 with diamond drill, and also opened by a shaft, disclosing iron almost 

 identical with the Iron Mountain product. 



The most western of these belts lies between the Riley Mountains and 

 Enchanted Rock in the south, and possibly having a greater width to 

 the northwest. While it is covered in places by later rocks, the indica- 

 tions are good for the discovery of important masses of iron ore in it. 



In quality the magnetites are high grade Bessemer ores, being low in 

 silica, phosphorus, and sulphur, and very high in metallic iron. 



Hematites. — These ores seem to be chiefly derived from alteration 

 of the magnetites. They usually crop out along portions of the north- 

 ern border of the magnetite area, and are chiefly segregations in sand- 

 stone, and although none of the exposures have yet been worked, valu- 

 able deposits will be found following the trend of the magnetite beds. 

 These segregations are to be found chiefly in the red sandstone of the 

 Cambrian system. They will be of value as Bessemer ores. 



The Hydrated Iron Ores. — The ores included in this variety em- 

 brace many different varieties. These appear almost exclusively in 



