IRON. 115 
hematite occurs. The iron ore is also disseminated through the wall rock for some dis- 
tance away from the main body. The surrounding rock is much decomposed, but is prob- 
ably a quartz-sericite schist. It is said that the iron is of good grade and contains only 
small amounts of sulphur and phosphorus. If the pits which have been dug give any idea 
of the extent of the deposit, little can be expected of it from the commercial standpoint. 
The same statement may be applied to all the other deposits of this type which have been 
visited. 
It seems not unlikely that these bodies represent deposits of bog iron ore buried by later 
sediments and then subjected to metamorphism which converted much of the limonite 
into hematite and in part even to magnetite. Such an origin would explain the small 
extent and the discontinuity of the deposits. A small deposit of limonite ore in decom- 
posed schist has been opened in shallow pits on the property of William Martin, about 3^ 
miles northwest of Blacksburg and just over the line in Cleveland County, N. C. The inter- 
bedding of the deposit with the surrounding slates suggests that it likewise originated from 
bog iron ore. 
South of Kings Mountain the Kings Mountain Range breaks up into smaller mounds and 
separated ridges. East of Blacksburg on one of these «dges some pits have been sunk on 
iron-rich places in the schist, and a comparatively small amount of ore has been taken out. 
It consists of both limonite and hematite, but at a depth of 20 to 25 feet becomes pyritic 
and soon passes into solid pyrite. 
Ore of a similar nature has been found on the knob just south of Broad River not far 
from Cherokee Falls. Open cuts of considerable size furnished ore for several blast fur- 
naces and bloomeries situated along the river in war times. These old openings are now 
nearly filled with debris and mateiial from the caving of the walls. The ore here is not so 
certainly derived from pyrite as that on the north side of the river just above, but the simi- 
larity in appearance and occurrence of the oxide ores is great. 
Iron of good grade occurring in streaks or vein-like masses was once mined to a small 
extent from the Ross property, near Wolf Creek. « Here, too, the percentage of sulphur 
increased with depth, and finally, it is said, the ore became such massive pyrite that it was 
used for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. 
During Revolutionary times iron was mined at the Hills iron *works on Nannies Moun- 
tain, York County. The rock, an impure foliated quartzite, is cut by a "vein" which 
strikes N. 15° E. and dips 80° to 85° E. Where best exposed it is 6 feet wide, but must 
have been much wider in places, to judge from the width of some of the pits on it. This 
band is composed of mixed limonite and hematite, much of it porous. Near a small stream 
which crosses the belt a shallow pit reaches granular quartz heavily impregnated by pyrite. 
It is evident, therefore, that the iron mined was simply the oxidized cap of a pyrite vein. 
It is said that prospecting by means of a diamond drill showed a heavy body of sulphides, 
partly pyrrhotite, at a depth of 400 feet. It seems probable that oxidation of this deposit 
has been pretty complete down to water level, while below that the sulphides are little 
altered. 
It is probable that these sulphide bodies represent veins and fahlbands and are distinct 
in origin from those deposits which are believed to have accumulated in bogs. 
The Ormond mine, about 5 miles northeast of the town of Kings Mountain, has been 
more developed than any of the iron deposits in the district described. At the time of visit 
the workings were inaccessible, and little but waste was to be seen on the dump. A rather 
full description of the mine is given by Nitze.& The main shaft, 173 feet deep, encoun- 
tered some good ore bodies at the bottom, considerably below present water level. On 
the other hand, masses of pyrite and pyrrhotite c have been found in various portions of 
the workings. Manganese, nickel, and cobalt oxides have been found with the ore.^ 
a See Lieber, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 89. 
6 Bull. North Carolina Geol. Survey No. 1, 1893, pp. 93-102. 
cWurtz, H., Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 12, 1859, p. 223; Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 27, 1859, 
p. 26. Cf. also Tuomey, M., Geology of South Carolina, 1848, pp. 81-83. 
d Wurtz, H., loc.cit. 
