166 The American Geologist. March, 1894 
is said "discouraging reports of the district had been given 
by explorers and geologists," but "by perseverance the ore 
was found." As the result the reader is left with the im- 
pression that no real assistance was ever rendered by geolo- 
gists in the discovery of these valuable ore deposits; that all 
the geological surveys that had been prosecuted in these 
districts prior to iss:5. L875 and 1891, respectively, failed to 
find and report the indications of ore. or else reported unfavora- 
bly; in short, that one man is just as likely to discover min- 
eral treasures as another; that ignorance is as desirable 
as knowledge, and it is all a matter of chance anyhow. 
What were the real facts in the matter? Were these three 
iron ranges visited and studied and reported on favorably or 
unfavorably by geologists prior to .the "discoveries'* of ore 
mentioned by Mr. Parker? 
Penokee-Gogebic Range. 
In I). D.Owen's "Report of a Geological Survey of Wis- 
consin. Iowa and Minnesota"' there is a "Geological Report of 
that port ion of Wisconsin bordering on the South Shore of 
Lake Superior, surveyed in the year 1849," by Charles Whit- 
tlesey. On pages 444-447 of this report (published in 1852) 
is a description of the "Magnetic Iron-Beds of the Penokie 
Range." Analyses of iron ore found there arc quoted which 
show from 56.3 per cent, to 66 per cent, of metallic iron, and 
the following statements are made: 
The bed of magnetic iron ore south of Lac des Anglais is of extraor- 
dinary thickness, — twenty-five to sixty feet. * * * * In 
the wild and deep ravines where the Bad river breaks through the 
range, there is a cliff of slaty ore, most of which comes out in thirj, 
oblique prisms, with well-defined angles and straight edges, probably 
three hundred feet thick, including what is covered by the talus or fall- 
en portions. I estimate more than one-half of this face to be ore; and 
in places the beds are from ten to twelve feet in thickness, with very 
little intermixture of quartz. There are portions of it not slaty, but 
thick-bedded. 
The geological occurrence is fully figured and described, 
and the similarity of this ore to "the extensive mines or rather 
mountains of iron ore in Michigan, described by Houghton, 
Burt. Jackson, Foster and Whitney" is also mentioned. The 
idea of exploitation on a large scale is conveyed in the last 
paragraph : 
