ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 
211 
“ The beds were deposited like the rest of the rocks in water ; deposited 
in the same age with the rocks which hold them; are in fact rock-de- 
posits highly charged with iron ; and they differ from the rest of the rocks 
only in this respect : that they are more highly charged with iron. In 
fact all our primary (magnetic and other) iron ore beds obey this law. 
They are merely certain strata consisting more or less completely of per- 
oxide of iron, with more or less intermixture of sand and mud, which 
when crystalized, fall into the shape of felspar, hornblende, mica, quartz, 
&c., &c.” 
“ The belt of outcrop of ore-bearing rocks has a uniform breadth of 
several hundred yards, and I believe a uniform dip towards the northwest, 
or north-northwest. 
The map, however, shows another ore 7jelt, running parallel with the 
former and at a distance of three miles from it. This is called the Iligh- 
field or Shaw outcrop. Beyond Haw River the two belts approach each 
other, and are believed to unite in Rockingham county. This and other 
considerations make it almost certain that the Shaw belt is the northwest 
outcrop of a synclinal basin, 3 miles wide, and that the Tuscarora belt is 
the southeast outcrop. If so, the Tuscarora ore-beds descend with a north- 
west dip to a depth of a mile beneath the surface, and then rise again as 
ore-beds at Highfield’s and Shaw’s, thus : 
The locality of the ore beds is indicated by the occurrence of fragments 
of ore scattered over the surface ; and these are the indications by which 
nearly all iron ore deposits are discovered. Large pieces on the surface 
are the best evidence we can possess that the beds are of good size, for 
they have come from those portions of the bed, which have been destroyed 
in the general lowering of the surface of the country. There is no reason 
why the parts of the beds left under the present surface should not yield 
as large masses as the parts which have mouldered away.” 
As will be readily understood, from what has been stated above, the 
number of ore beds in the cross-section will be likely to vary from point 
to point along the range. “ A large number of rock strata will become 
