250 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
ble mining could be carried on, after the exhaustion of the comparatively 
few masses which happen to make an outcrop. These ores are of very 
fine quality and commanded the remarkably high price of $9.00 a ton at 
the pit’s mouth at the time of my visit in 1873. And the largest heaps 
of ore to be seen at the furnaces of Scotland and England, where mallea- 
ble iron or steel is made, are Spanishred hematites, to procure which, 
English capital has penetrated by rail a hundred miles from the coast, 
into the province of Bilboa. I happened also to hear of a transaction 
of thejdav before, by which a Scotch firm contracted for three millions of 
tons of the famous hematites of the island of Elba, so popular with the old 
Romans, twenty centuries ago. And it is well knowm that English capi- 
talists and iron associations are sending their experts and foremost iron 
manufacturers to investigate the iron resources of this country. The ores 
which fix the attention of these experienced scientific and practical Eng- 
lishmen, are chiefly of the class under consideration, — the better class of 
iron and steel ores, — the Marquette region, the Iron Mountain, &c. It 
is only necessary that the numerous deposits of such ores in this state 
become known. If we could have a full report (such as the above) by 
Dr. Lesley, on each one of half a dozen iron ore ranges in the state, capi- 
tal would not be long in finding a way to utilize them. 
This Guilford range of ores has not been traced to its termination in 
either direction, and doubtless other valuable beds will be dis- 
covered ; and there are alread} 7 indications that there are outcrops of the 
same kind of ore as far northeast as Caswell county, some very fine speci- 
mens of magnetite having been brought to the Museum from that 
county. 
There are also other iron ore localities in Rockingham, which do not 
belong to this range ; for example, near the Virginia line, in a northeast 
direction from Madison ; and again two miles below the month of Smith’s 
river, (Morehead’s Factory), there is a bed of red hematite iron ore, about 
ten inches thick at the outcrop. It is very dense, heavy and hard, uncrvstal- 
line, and almost jaspery, and is no doubt a good ore, judging from its ap- 
pearance. 
Iron Ores of Mecklenburg and Cabarrus.— No iron mines of any ex- 
tent, have been worked in these counties, but ore has been found in a 
number of localities. Hand specimens of magnetic ore of great purity 
are frequenty brought to the Museum, and a systematic search would no 
doubt reveal workable beds. Fragments of a very heavy, black metallic 
ore are found in considerable quantities on the farm of Mr. Geo. Phifer, 
three miles from Concord, and some little search was made during the 
war, but not enough to reach any satisfactory conclusion. A few trenches 
