266 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
Baltimore for boiler iron, and commanded fifteen dollars a ton above the 
market. In quality it is unsurpassed by any iron in the world. And in 
regard to quantity, the bed much exceeds the great deposits of Missouri 
and Michigan, and at least equals anything in the Champlain region. So 
that it has not probably an equal in this country. It has been recently 
sold to one of the leading iron manufacturing companies of Pennsylvania, 
for $175,000, and when they shall have completed the branch railroad, 
thirty miles in length, from the ore to the East Tennessee & Virginia 
Railroad, no doubt the iron world will begin to hear of the deposit in a 
practical way. 
The topographical sketch of this ore-bed was taken rapidly and roughly, 
with a mountain level and pocket barometer, and of course lacks accuracy 
of detail, but the main features and measurements are approximately 
exact. The epidote is not entirely confined to a single stratum, or part 
of the bed, being mixed to some extent with the pyroxenic rocky gangue 
which most abounds towards the western side of the vein. 
There are other magnetic ore-beds in the neighborhood of less extent. 
One is said to occur along the face of the same (Iron) mountain between 
one and two miles eastward : and several others at the distance of six to 
ten miles in a southeast direction. Northwestward also, beyond the State 
line and within a few miles of it is a number of ore-beds, mostly mag- 
netic — one limonite; indeed it is evident that there is an extensive range 
of iron ores in this region, which are of the highest qualit}’, and must one 
day attract a large capital for their development. Peposits of ore are also 
found in other parts of the county; but like the last named, they are 
known only by their outcrops. One of these is a bed of magnetite, on 
the lower slope of Little Yellow Mountain, at Flat Rock. The ore is 
quite like the Cranberry, of equal purity apparently, and strongly polaric. 
Some large blocks are found on the surface, weighing several hundred 
pounds, but no vein or bed of more than one or two feet, has been ex- 
posed by the slight effort at trenching recently made. Frequent speci- 
mens of menaccanite are also found at the same locality. 
A bed of limonite occurs three or four miles northwest of Flat Rock, 
recognizable by a profusion of surface fragments, but no explorations have 
been made. On Rock Creek, beyond Bakersville, at the foot of the 
great Roan Mountain, are also several beds of magnetic ore, of which 
hand specimens resemble the Cranberry ore, and the geological associa- 
tions are also the same. Of the size of the beds I have no definite infor- 
mation, except in regard to one near the mouth of Big Rock Creek, where 
a little trenching has been done, and a few small veins or beds of irregu- 
lar shape, and one or two feet thickness, were touched. The rock is 
