I 
Appendix—Geological survey. 489 
covered with water so that I could not see it, or by any means find out its 
thickness or horizontal extent. 
We have here, in the eastern part of Wood ccunty, and extending into Port¬ 
age, a large district, in which we find, not only indications of bog ore, but a 
number of actual deposits scattered over a large tract of country that will, 
when developed, yield, no doubt, a large amount of superior iron ore. And 
there is a good foundation for the belief that the deposits which are seen, and 
that by a mere accident were discovered, are but a small portion of what re¬ 
mains unseen beneath those peat marshes that extend over miles of surface. 
I know of no place on the earth where there are more favorable conditions 
combined to produce extensive deposits of rich bog ore than here. In the 
first place, the surface of the country is low and marshy, and everywhere 
forms depressions in which surface and spring water would naturally ac¬ 
cumulate. In these depressions a large amount of decomposing vegetation 
combines with living species to form peat and peaty matter. In the second 
place, this water passes over, or rises through, the azoic formation, which is 
known to be almost everywhere impregnated with iron in some form, even 
where no extensive deposits are known to exist. In the third place, it is east, 
as can be seen by a map, from the iron district of Black river, and in all 
probability the eastern extension of the same belt along which existed once 
mounds and ledges of iron ore similar to what we find there; but like the 
rocks in which they were found, have yielded to disintegration, and the iron 
has been taken up and carried away by water and deposited in this new 
form. 
In the fourth place, this district ia on the same line of physical disturb¬ 
ance with the kaolin deposits, where we have unmistakable evidences of in¬ 
tense, and long continued disintegrating forces, that have leveled down, and 
leveled up, the surface inequalities of this region, until almost every trace of 
its original configuration is obliterated. I can think of this tract of country 
only as one of nature’s laboratories, in which her forces have been at work 
taking down, and into pieces, original forms of matter, and moulding the 
material into forms better adapted to modern civilization. Hence the kaolin 
from feldspar, the bog iron ore from original deposits, and other natural pro¬ 
ducts are newly made from old material. On the north side of this granite 
range, where it is again dipping to the north, I find in the town of Rudolph* 
about seven miles to the north of Grand Rapids, on what is called Shirky 
Hill, a fine prospect for iron ore. It is very difficult to tell what it really 
is from the fact that, the rock in place, is not exposed any where in the 
immediate neighborhood where the ore is found, consequently the exact 
geological position of the ore, or its relation to the rocks, cannot be de¬ 
termined. This is one of those places, where a knowledge of geological re¬ 
lations is all important in determining the value of such phenomena, as 
may be seen by the following considerations: About a mile to the south of 
this place, as we approach it from Grand Rapids, there is an extensive ridge 
with a good exposure of sandstone on the surface. A quarry is opened here, 
and the sandstone used for building. There is no place, however, where 
