-1(3 THE STALEy\s creek AXD 



limits of error in each cross-section are so small, compared with the distances apart 

 of the different beds, that in a similar case the identit}^ of coal beds exposed at differ- 

 ent points wonld be quite undoubted; and the uniformity of those distances over a 

 space of several miles is even surprising. The correspondence of the beds in the 

 different cross-sections is, however, in some parts a little less certain. In a section 

 across Pond Mountain and Brushy Mountain near the road the outcrop of the four 

 beds are exposed on each side of the northern saddle, and probably the three upper 

 ones are exposed on the north side of the southern saddle. In a section past the 

 forks of Staley's Creek, the three lower beds seem to be exposed on the north side of 

 the southern saddle ; and in a section past the forks of ISTick's Creek the upper and 

 lower beds seem to be exposed also on the north side of the southern saddle. The 

 exposures marked in the sections are almost all very near to the section lines, so that 

 there can be no appreciable error from any possible slight mistake in the direction 

 of the strike in projecting the exposures upon the section lines ; and with a very few 

 small allowances for slipping of the observed ore lumps down hill from the true out- 

 crop of the iDcds all the known exposures correspond well with the theoretical out- 

 crops of the four beds. 



Yield, — Taking the outcrops of all four beds together, there seem to be eighty- 

 three miles of outcrop in the region. • 



In like manner the foregoing estimates give, for all four l3eds for the amount of 

 ore in tons above the lowest water level of the region for one foot of average thick- 

 ness of each bed, 36,690,000 tons. 



The average thickness in feet of each of the four beds, taking them all together 

 (the multiplier of that number of tons to get the full amount of iron ore in the i-egion 

 above water level), it is, of course, quite as impossible to state, as it is that of the 

 least explored of the beds. Yet the exposures that have been described would go to 

 show an averao-e thickness of each bed of somethino^ like seven feet. That thickness 

 would give according to the foregoing calculations over 250,000,000 tons of iron ore 

 in the region above water level. 



Wo<_)i). — Within the region there seemed to l:)e in 1866 about 260 acres of cleai'ed 

 land and 14,040 acres of woodland. The woodland of the Thomas Tract was esti- 

 mated to bear on the average forty cords of wood to the acre, almost all hard wood ; 

 and the rest of the Avoodland of the region would probably yield as much. 



A charcoal pit of twenty-five cords of wood, there, is reckoned to yield, when 

 green, 800 bushels of charcoal ; when dry, 1000 bushels. Charcoal at Marion cost in 

 1866 (it is said) from seven to eight cents a bushel. Just south of the region on 

 Iron Mountain and southeast of that, are many thousand acres of woodland, and so 



