m 



THE stalp:y's creek a^d 



There seem to be outcropping in the region at least 3,000 feet, and perhaps 4,500 

 feet in thickness of the sandrocks and shales, and in the third basin north of Pond 

 Monntain some fifty feet of the lime rock Xo. II. There are numerous openings 

 and natural exposures of the outcrops of iron ores, biit they seem all to belong to 

 four beds. 



The Day Ore Bed ap})ear3 to lie about GOO feet below the lowest lime rock. 

 The Thomas Ore Bed lies about 700 feet below the Day Ore Bed. 

 The Cole Ore Bed is about 1300 feet beloAV the Thomas Ore Bed. 

 The Old Mountain Ore Bad is about 400 feet below the Cole Ore Bed. 

 From that to the lowest rocks cropping out where the top of the Pond Monntain 

 crosses the west line of the Thomas tract is pei'haps 1500 feet. 

 The ore of all the 1)cds is broAvn hematite. 



VLB MOUNTAIN ORE BED. 



The Old Mountain Ore Bed seems not to be opened anywhere strictly within the 

 region, but is opened at the Old Mountain Oi'e Bank, close to the southeast corner of 

 the Wright tract, but on the south side of Brushy' Mountain, at the top of its south- 

 ern saddle, at the divide between Slemp's Creek on the east and George's Creek on 

 the West. At this bank there are two large openings, one, the old one, long since 

 abandoned, and the other still in use and the larger ; and besides them there are three 

 smaller ones. The thickness of the bed is not apparent, but it must be several feet, 

 perhaps ten feet, possibly more. It furnishes the favorite ore for bloomary forge use 

 of all the region round, and is said to make a very tough iron of the best quality, 

 neither too hard nor too soft, barshire. The ore is a very beautiful, pure looking, 

 honey-combed but [)retty compact brown hematite. At one of the smaller openings, 

 the ore is of a dark bluish color and is more compact, but looks pure; it is said to 

 make " exceedingly tough iron in the bloomary, but to free itself less easily than the 

 othei- one from cinder. It works finely when mixed w ith the other ore, but as it was 

 a little difficult to hit just the right proportion in mixing, the blue ore was wholly 

 abandoned." The main opening is some twenty yards across and is fifteen to twenty- 

 five feet deep according to the slope of the ground. 



The same bed, apparently, is o])ened at the Barton Ore Bank, about a mile further 

 west on the same outcrop, and about a quarter of a mile east of the southwest corner 

 of the Henderlite tract. The opening is on the south side of a small hollow near the 

 top of Brushy Mountain, and is some forty yards wide and ten yards deep at the 

 western end. The bed seems to dip forty-five degrees northwesterly and is said to 

 '^ave shown that dip much more plainly before the sides of the hole had fallen in m 



