APPENDIX—GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
445 
deep from which he had raised about ten pounds of ore; but I 
was unable to detect any sign of crevice or opening in the ex¬ 
cavation; and as no other was accessible, my impressions were 
necessarily very unfavorable in regard to the prospects of min¬ 
ing in this formation, especially after listening to the vehement 
objurgations of this solitary miner against his own stupidity 
in continuing to prospect in so barren a rock.” 
This is the only place near the lead district visited by the 
writer referred to where any information could be obtained in 
reference to the lower magnesian; and all the evidence by 
which this formation was condemned was obtained from this 
little hole, about twenty-five feet deep, sunk in the rock, as the 
writer says, without any signs of crevice or opening. Who, 
with the first elements of the knowledge of mining, would ex¬ 
pect to find ore in such a place? It would be in conflict with 
every mode of deposit in the lead district, and with the laws 
governing mineral veins everywhere. I do not wonder at the 
man’s upbraiding himself for his stupidity in spending his 
time looking for ore in rocks where there was no sign of a fis¬ 
sure or opening, I only wonder that such a man had sense 
enough to know that he was stupid. 
Dr. Percival, who visited this place some years before, when 
the diggings were open and working, gives a very different 
account of this deposit of ore in the lower magnesian. He 
says that three successive openings occur there, one eight or 
ten feet below the sandstone, another just above the harder 
middle bed, and the third below the bottom of the ravine in 
that bed, and at the depth of seventy feet in the lower magne¬ 
sian. He further adds: “ The openings appeared partly nar¬ 
row and vertical, partly wide and flat, with appearances of 
decomposition and stain in the rock, deposits of clay and 
ochre, and arrangement of mineral similar to those in the 
upper magnesian (galena limestone.) The mineral in these 
openings generally appeared in more or less detached masses, 
(chunk mineral,) often very large, weighing more than 100 
lbs., a few, more than 500dbs. After examining this locality, 
