ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 
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bed of limouite, which doubtless belongs to the iron ore range of Linville. 
The bed is not well exposed, but 3 or 4 feet of thickness are visible on 
the steep escarpment, and large masses which have broken off, are fallen 
down to a lower point on the slope. 
Iron Ores of Mitchell and Ashe . — In Mitchell county is found one of 
the most remarkable iron ore deposits in North America. It lies on the 
western slope of the Iron Mountain, (a part of the Great Smoky range), 
in the northeast corner of the county, 3 miles from the Tennessee line, and 
about a mile from the rapid torrent of Elk River, the principal affluent of 
the Watauga. It has been long known as the Cranberry Ore Bank, from 
Cranberry Creek, which flows at the foot of the steep mountain spurs, on 
which it outcrops. The prevalent and characteristic rock of the moun- 
tains in this locality is hornblende slate and syenyte, and it is on the 
northern margin of a mountainous ledge of such rocks, that the ore-bed 
occurs, gray gneisses and gneissoid slates coming in beyond in immediate 
succession and association, in part. 
