Royal Physical Society. 379 



very of very great importance to the iron trade of the west of 

 Scotland has lately been made on the extensive mineral estates 

 belonging to the Hon. Colonel Cathcart, situated at Garpel, 

 near Muirkirk. A vast lineal deposit of very rich hematite 

 iron ore has now been fully proved, to a distance of more than 

 three-fourths of a mile, traversing in a nearly north and south 

 direction the porphyritic, arenaceous, and trappean formations, 

 which chiefly constitute the mountainous tracts of the eastern 

 parts of Ayrshire, the geological conditions being analogous 

 to those characterizing the large hematite deposits of Lanca- 

 shire. During the last twelve months a large body of work- 

 men have been employed in opening up the ground on the 

 course of this valuable mineral, erecting a range of buildings 

 at the mine, and in forming a railway of about a mile and 

 three quarters in length across the moor to the public road. 

 This vast ferruginous deposit is found to be from 20 to 50 

 yards wide, and constitutes the eastern escarpment of a deep 

 gorge or burn ; it has been thoroughly and most effectively 

 laid open to the length of about 250 yards on its line of bear- 

 ing, and to a depth of some 60 or 70 feet, the whole now pre- 

 senting the novel appearance of a vast quarry of hematite iron 

 ore ; and there are already many thousand tons of it lying in 

 heaps by the side of the tramway, ready for transit to their 

 depot at Wellwood, on the Muirkirk Railway. The Garpel 

 ore has been tested in large quantities at some of the neigh- 

 bouring furnaces, and pronounced to be superior in quality to 

 the best hematite iron ores of England." — Ayr Observer. 



This statement must be gratifying, not only to the parties 

 more immediately concerned, but also to the inhabitants of the 

 district and the public in general, since the prosperity of the 

 country at large depends so much on its mineral resources, 

 more especially on its ores of iron. The discovery of this he- 

 matite, however, is not new, as was stated in the newspaper an- 

 nouncement. It is now a good many years since I was engaged 

 by the Hon. Colonel Macadam Cathcart to survey and report 

 upon this vast deposit of red hematite, I accordingly examined 

 and reported on the quantity as large, and the quality as ex- 

 cellent; the latter I stated, according to the analysis of red 

 hematite by Daubuisson, to consist of— 



