ANDERSON COUNTY. 309 



the county. What adds still more to its value is its nearness to the pure 

 white limestone in the Saline. This is excellently adapted for a flux in smelt- 

 ing iron ore, and on that account of the greatest practical importance. 



The ores are of the brown laminated, concretionary, and conglomerate 

 varieties found elsewhere in the district, the former greatly predominating. 

 The stratigraphic position of the ores has been described so often as to need 

 no repetition here, where they present no features differing from those of 

 Cherokee and other counties The analyses will show that the ores of this 

 county are of excellent quality, some of them being adapted even for the 

 manufacture of steel, on account of the small amounts of sulphur and phos- 

 phorus contained in them and their high percentage of metallic iron. 



IRON ORE AREAS. 



Just northwest of Palestine the first of the great range of iron bearing hills 

 begins. Its longer axis extends nearly northwest, and it has a length of five 

 miles by a width of about two miles, an area of nearly ten square miles. Its 

 boundary begins in the northern part of the J. Snively survey, runs north 

 through the western part of the S. G-. Wells, crossing into the Wm. Kimbro 

 near the northwest corner of the Wells tract. Following a general north- 

 west course through the Kimbro tract it crosses the southwest portion of the 

 S. Hopkins and G. W. Ford surveys into the M. Salisar tract. Its extreme 

 northern limit is near the centre of the tract, where it turns south to near the 

 southern boundary of the survey, and then sharply east to the corner of the 

 Geo. Hanks, at which point it again crosses into the Kimbro tract. From 

 here it follows an irregular line, crossing the J. P. Burnet, G. W. Gatewood, 

 and Jno. Shirley tracts, back into the J. Snively and to the place of begin- 

 ning. The ore is of the laminated variety with some concretionary ore in 

 places.* 



Just east of this a much smaller area of similar ore is found, beginning in 

 the northeast corner of the W. Kimbro, crossing the Peter Hinds and David 

 Faris surveys into the southwest corner of the H. Hunks*tract. This deposit 

 has a length of about two miles and is not more than one-half mile in width. 

 The ore is similar to that just described (laminated) and has an average thick- 

 ness of more than two feet. 



The third area of high grade ore lies to the north of the two just described 

 and is more extensive than either. On its eastern side the headwaters of the 

 Mount Prairie Creek have cut deeply into it, giving it a very irregular outline. 

 Its southeast corner is about the southwest corner of the Jno. McCrabb sur- 

 vey, and the line bounding it passes northward through the western part of 

 that tract into the J. B. McNealy, of which the deposit covers probably about 



* Analyses 4 and 5, Laminated Ores. 



