490 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
we can see the junction of this sandstone with the azoic rocks below, but 
we know from the character of the rock, that it cannot be far above it. 
Shirky Hill, the ridge on which the ore is found, is not quite so high as 
this, but it is nevertheless a well defined bluff, running about east and west. 
About half way up this bluff, and from there to the ridge, the surface is 
covered for near one-half mile east and west with a jaspery brown ferrugi¬ 
nous quartz, very porous. From a well sunk here we find, that beneath 
the surface there is a great depth of what would be called surface material, 
produced by extensive disintegration along this portion of the bluff, and 
forming a heterogeneous mass of fragments of rock, vein stones, and iron 
ore, mixed up with a hard reddish clay, this jaspery porous quartz rock 
forming a considerable portion of the mass. This well, although sunk over 
twenty feet, does not give us the thickness of this material, or the characters 
of the rock beneath it. 
A short distance to the north of this, at Scott’s mill, and on a little lower 
ground, there is another well. It is sunk into strata very similar to what we 
find at Black River Falls, that is, the azoic slates. In this slate rock, good 
specimens of iron ore were found in sinking the well,—ore that is very simi¬ 
lar to what we find at Shirky Hill. Here we know we are below the sand¬ 
stone. Now, inasmuch, as to the south of where this ore is found, a short 
distance, and on a little higher ground, we find the sandstone in place, and a 
little to the north of it, on a little lower ground, the azoic rocks are at the 
surface, it is very evident that this ore at Shirky Hill is at, or very near, the 
junction of the two formations. 
That this iron ore and vein material is the disintegrated portion of a de¬ 
posit of iron ore at this place, and not washed here from elsewhere, is evi¬ 
dent beyond all doubt, for the outlines of the deposit can be traced by this 
vein material on the surface; but whether the deposit was formed at the 
junction of the two formations, and conforming to the horizontal bearing of 
the sandstone, or whether it is a deposit occurring as a vein in the azoic for¬ 
mations, the upper portion of which has been disintegrated, is very difficult 
to tell, but very important to know. If it is the former, then no doubt the 
deposit, or a very large portion of it, with the rock in which it was found, 
has been destroyed by disintegration, and this heterogeneous mass may be all 
that is left of it. If the latter, the upper portion of the vein only has been 
exposed to these disintegrating influences, furnishing material for this mass, 
beneath which the vein in place will be found. 
I would not only urge upon those who may undertake to develop this 
prospect for iron, the consideration of these things, but would add the fol¬ 
lowing suggestions: If this material is the disintegrated portion of an 
horizontal deposit running between the two formations, it is possible that a 
part of the deposit may yet remain. If so, it will be found only on the 
western end, where the surface, gradually rising, may give a few feet of sand¬ 
stone over the deposit. To prove this, it would be of but little use to sink a 
shaft anywhere but to the west end, or at least on the western end of these 
surface indications. But if it is the upper portion of a vertical vein , “ or the 
