614 CENTRAL MINERAL REGION OF TEXAS. 



The main facts and the conditions in which the magnetic ores are placed are these : 



1. Whenever a set of rocks appear such as are described in Part I of this Report under 

 the head of Iron Mountain Series.* there is liable to be a valuable deposit of magnetite. In 

 prospecting be sure that you have a set of rocks whose general strike is very nearly northwest 

 {magnetic). 



2. If, in the same connection, a large amount of red soil occurs in comparatively narrow- 

 strips, there may be a good ore body at no great depth beneath the decomposed portions. 

 Wide belts, especially along valleys of stream, are usually not of this class. To test the 

 matter, dig down to bed rock only, and do not loaste labor in excavating rocks which you do not 

 know. Pay out money for competent advice and act upon it. If you or your friends or "prac- 

 tical miners " " have never seen such rocks before," experienced engineers can tell you their val- 

 ues accurately by their tests. 



3. A body of magnetite ore having been found, it may be followed by the dipping needle 

 or by prospecting in a northwest or southeast direction. But when you strike the red sand- 

 stone or other rock overlying, the beds with the northwest strike will disappear beneath the others. 



4. Beds trending nearly north-south resemble these somewhat, but they are of later date 

 and the magnetic ores occur beneath them. You can m.rely find the ore bodies by digging in 

 such places unless you have an intimate knowledge of the geology of the country. 



5. There are six parallel belts in which it is possible that valuable deposits of magnetite 

 may be discovered.-}- 



THE BABYHEAD BAND. 



The easternmost outcrops of the hard ores follow a course represented by 

 a line bearing southeastward, passing near Baby head and Lone Grove post- 

 offices, and coming out southward very near the Wolf Crossing of the Colo- 

 rado River. This belt is well exposed in the Babyhead Mountains, but is 

 buried beneath the Cambrian strata just beyond the north line of Llano 

 County, which is thus practically the northern limit. As exhibited on the 

 Economic Map, other buried bands are indicated by the outcrops of derived 

 vein ores further east, but so far as yet determined there are no important 

 exposures of the hard ores anywhere in the courses of these bands, although 

 certain of the hematite pockets in quartz veins afford examples of this class, 

 having closer affinities to the soft vein ores in their mode of occurrence. (See 

 remarks beyond under the head of "The Eastern Burnet County Band of 

 Soft Ores.") 



The typical strike of the Fernandian System can be traced southeastward 

 nearly to the Colorado River, with some breaks where erosion, more recent 

 uplifts, or alluvial deposits have cut out or obscured its path, but no work- 

 able outcrops of the hard ores have attracted attention except those in the 

 vicinity of Babyhead Town. There is every reason to expect good results 

 from prospecting in the tract here outlined, especially in the north half, down 



*See page 271 of First Annual Report. 



■f-Three was given as the number recognized in 1889, but I have since been able to work 

 the region more thoroughly. 



