nick's creek ieox ore regiox. 



37 



much as they had in 1866 after having been abandoned live or six years. The ore is 

 stated to have been '"a bed about four feet thick, of very good quaUty in the bloom- 

 ary forge, very easily melted and making veiy excellent tough substantial iron ; but 

 not always perfect, probably red-short, for wagon tires were sometimes ruined while 

 making." The good ore Is a beautiful compact broAvn hematite that looks very pure ; 

 but the rock left unmined just below the ore bed is a pudding rock of white crystaline 

 rounded quartz pebbles smaller than peas, united by a brown hematite cement, making 

 also an iron ore but of inferior quality. 



The outcrop of the bed is shown also at several places in the region by beds of ore; 

 on the road across Brushy Mountain at the west end of the Henderlite tract, near the 

 top of the mountain, and on the bridle path across Pond Mountain on both sides of 

 the mountain near the top ; so that the bed seems to be ]3ersistent ovei- a wide sjirice, 

 although the thickness is not known. 



The bed seems either to crop out or to come very near the surface all along the 

 top of Brushy Mountain, and to have in all seven miles in length of outcrop in this 

 part of the region. On the south side of the Pond Mountain saddle its outcrop runs 

 from the western edge of the Thomas tract three miles and a quarter nearly across 

 the tract ; and then the same outcrop returns westward, on the north side of the 

 saddle, about three miles to the western boundary again, making for the whole Pond 

 Mountain outcrop six miles and a quarter, everywhere near the top of the mountain, 

 ]S^ortli of that the bed seems not to come to the surface again anywhere. The whole 

 length of the outcrop of the bed in the whole region seems then to be about thirteen 

 miles and a quarter. 



The amount of ore in tons above the lowest water level of the region has been 

 calculated for one foot of average thickness of pure ore. The lowest water level of 

 the region is taken to be at about a hundred feet above the level of the Staley's Creek 

 Avhere it enters Marion, and is about the lowest level of the waters of that creek 

 where they leave the Thomas tract. These numbers of tons will have to be multiplied 

 of course by the number of feet that the bed averages in thickness, whatever that may 

 hereafter prove to be. In the Brushy Mountain part of the bed there seem then to 

 be above this Avater level for each foot of average thickness of the bed 7,110,000 tons; 

 in the Pond Mountain part of the bed in like manner 2,380,000 tons ; in all therefore 

 9,490,000 tons for each foot of average thickness of the bed. 



As for the average thickness of pure ore in the bed in feet (the multiplier of this 

 number for the full amount of ore) the imperfect information as to the thickness of 

 the bed at the Old Mountain Ore Bank and at the Barton Ore Bank Avould go to 



A, P. s. — VOL, xy. .T, 



