Appendix—Geological survey. 
487 
specular iron ore traversing these hard rocks on Yellow river. The patches 
of slate rock found in connection with them are also impregnated with iron. 
In places, these slates are deposing into a reddish clay, the richest of which 
will no doubt burn into a fair ochre that can be used for paint or for fluxing 
silicious in iron ore. With the exception of these things, which must be re¬ 
garded only as indications of something better, I find nothing of importance 
so far as the ores of the metals are concerned. It is possible, however, in¬ 
deed I think it is likely that knolls, or even mounds of iron ore similar to 
what we find on Black river, will be found protruding through this superficial 
bed of sand, in places between those streams. East from this place, on the 
Wisconsin river, and about eight or ten miles to the south of the city of 
Grand Rapids, these underlying azoic rocks appear as surface rocks in the bed 
and along the banks of the river. These strata are very similar to what we 
find on Black river, with strong evidenees of being the extension eastward, of 
that metalliferous, or iron belt -so well developed there, indications of which 
we find also on the same line, east on Yellow river. Here on the Wisconsin 
river, we have, in addition to those indications of iron ore on Yellow river, 
beds of bog-iron ore in a number of places, scattered over a large tract of 
country, and there appear to be very extensive places where this ore is exposed 
to the surface; may be found at Point Boss, about eight or nine miles to the 
south of the city of Grand Rapids, on the east side of the river, also on the 
west side, near the city, and on the east side about three miles above. In the 
town of Grant, in Portage county, on what is called Four Mile Creek, and 
about six or seven miles to the east of the beds at Point Boss, there are fine 
specimens of very good ore, and indications of extensive deposits. 
These beds f of ore, like bog iron ore everywhere else, are strictly surface 
deposits of comparatively modern times, consequently are near the surface 
and covered as a general thing with only a few inches of surface accumula¬ 
tions, and often resting on material of a similar character. In places where 
the~surface of the country is low and marshy, these beds are covered with a 
brown, sandy soil, which in places passes into a sandy peat, while in others 
not so low and marshy, the covering is composed more of clay and gravel. 
From the fact that we find those beds in their natural state, that is, where 
nothing has been done to develop them, it is impossible for any one to give 
anything like a correct estimate of their extent, or the amount of ore any one 
of those beds may contain. Where I have examined them, however, by cut¬ 
ting into the beds, I find them to be from one to three feet^thick, and appar¬ 
ently extending horizontally over a large surface of country. The ore in 
those beds is not of that earthy, ochreous kind that we sometimes call bog 
ore, that yields only 10 or 15 per cent, of iron, but it is a hard, compact ore, 
with a metallic or sub-metallic luster, and resembles very much some varie¬ 
ties of brown hematite. 
There is great uniformity in the appearance, and I should think in the 
quality also, of the ore in all the places that I have examined; a specimen 
from one will represent the whole. Without analysis, it is impossible for any 
one to state correctly the percent, of iron this ore contains; but from a 
