nick's OKEEK iron orb EEC4IO]Sr. 



43 



perhaps six yards deep, in a flat piece of ground, and was in 1866 so full of water as 

 to hide the ore. The solid ore bed is said to have been worked here and to have been 

 followed as it dipped sonthwards, and to have been ten or twelve feet thick. This is 

 reckoned the best of the ore banks on the Thomas Tract, at least for the quality of 

 the ore ; and judging from a few lumps lying about the bank it is really a very beau- 

 tiful honeycombed brown hematite, not entirely free however from silicions matter in 

 the form of chalcedony. 



The same bed, as it seems, is opened at the Williams Ore Bank on the G. H. 

 Williams Tract, on the other (southern) side of the Pond Mountain Saddle, about 600 

 yards east of the Thomas Tract, and near the northern side of the West Fork of 

 Staley's Creek, at the foot of the Pond Mountain. The bank consists of two old 

 holes a couple of yards in diameter and about as deep in the side of the hill ; and it 

 would seem that the solid bed was not found here, but only the loose lumps near the 

 outcrop. Judging by the lumps still lying about the bank the ore is a very compact 

 brown hematite, inferior to the ore of the ore bank in the Flat, but still quite good. 



The same bed apparently is opened 350 yards southeast of the Williams Bank 

 on the other side of the basin and of the valley, near the foot of the northern slope 

 of the Wolf Pen Ridge, at the ISTichols Ore Bank. This is likewise only a small 

 hole in the ground, where probably only the loose lumps of the outcrop were found, 

 and it has been abandoned for fifteen or sixteen years. The lumps still lying al30ut 

 it show the ore to have been a very beautiful compact brown hematite, apparently of 

 the greatest purity. 



A quarter of a mile northwest of this on the same hillside is a large opening, long 

 since abandoned, that .seems to be on the same bed, and is called the Old Staley's 

 Creek Ore Bank. Only lumps of ore appear to have been found here, and the real 

 outcrop of the bed is probably a little higher up hill. The lumps of ore still lying 

 about show that it is a very fine compact brown hematite, apparently of excellent 

 quality. 



A quarter of a mile still further west along the same hillside is the Main Staley's 

 Creek Ore Bank, on the same bed, a large opening fifty yards long, east and west, 

 and thirty yards wide and ten yards deep on the deepest side towards the south. It 

 is said that the solid ore bed was worked here, but the digging has been abandoned 

 for some time, and is so fallen in as to hide the ledge. There are, however, two large 

 -six foot blocks together here and a third partially uncovered in another part of the 

 hole, and some of them may be still in place. The ore is a very good brown hematite, 

 but not perfectly free from silicious matter. 



This bed seems also to be the one opened at the JN^ick's Ore Bank on the Camp- 



