164  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,  1906,  PART    I. 
series  seems  to  consist  of  essentially  the  same  members  as  those  that 
are  found  in  the  float  on  the  north  slope.  Still  farther  south  the  slopes 
become  gentler. 
In  some  places  the  schistose  series  is  succeeded  by  thinly  laminated 
slightly  metamorphosed  light-colored  shales  with  thinly  banded  lime- 
stones. In  other  places  the  shales  and  thin-banded  limestones  are 
missing  and  instead  rather  massive  dolomitic  limestones  with  occa- 
sional cherty  beds  are  found.  As  the  dips  are  all  in  the  same  direc- 
tion the  structure  of  the  ridge  would  seem  to  be  monoclinal,  but  this 
interpretation  is  not  permissible,  for  the  dolomitic  limestones  on  both 
flanks  are  of  the  same  age. 
Further  facts  concerning  the  structure  of  the  ridge  are  afforded  in 
the  deep  cuts  or  sections  across  the  ridge.  These  are  formed  where 
streams  cut  across  or  where  low  sags  occur  which  have  previously 
been  worn  by  streams  that  are  now  diverted,  by  capture,  from  their 
former  courses.  A  nearly  continuous  rock  section  several  hundred 
feet  below  the  summit,  traversing  the  entire  ridge,  is  afforded  by  the 
railroad  cut  which  follows  Shirtee  Creek  through  Oden  Gap.  At  the 
extreme  north  end  of  this  section  there  is  a  dolomitic  limestone  which 
shows  a  nearly  horizontal  dip  with  a  little  anticlinal  fold  at  the  south 
end.  The  limestone  abruptly  terminates  against  a  series  of  meta- 
morphic  schists  that  have  a  greenish  color  and  wavy  cleavage.  In 
the  midst  of  these  schists  are  bands  of  quartzite — very  hard,  close- 
textured  beds,  varying  from  1  to  3  feet  in  thickness,  not  at  all  like  the 
heavy  quartzitic  conglomeratic  sandstone  on  top  of  the  ridge.  The 
first  quartzite  found  in  the  section  is  folded  into  a  syncline,  the  bowl 
of  which  is  well  exposed.  This  quartzite  is  much  metamorphosed 
and  shows  the  development  of  secondary  chlorite  along  the  planes  of 
shearing.  South  of  the  quartzite  and  relatively  below  it  are  more 
schists,  similar  to  those  previously  described.  These  schists  are 
folded  into  an  anticline  and  then  succeeded  by  another  bed  of  quartz- 
ite. Above  the  quartzite  lies  a  series  of  schists,  the  same  as  the  others, 
with  interbedded  iron  ores  which  generally  occur  rather  near  the 
quartzite  horizons.  The  dip  of  the  schists  is  variable,  but  the  litho- 
logical  character  is  nearly  constant. 
MINES  AND   PROSPECTS. 
Although  the  occurrence  of  gray  ore  in  Talladega  County  has  long 
been  known,  having  been  reported  by  Tuomey  in  1858,  not  much 
attention  has  been  paid  to  this  source  of  iron.  At  the  present  time 
only  one  company,  the  Gray  Ore  Iron  Company,  is  in  active  opera- 
tion in  the  district.  The  Gray  Ore  Iron  Company  owns  approximately 
3  miles  along  the  strike  of  the  formation,  but  has  begun  operations  at 
only  two  points,  namely,  at  the  Emauhee  mine  on  Emauhee  Creek, 
and  at  the  Mesaba  or  Tallaseeha tehee  mine,  on  Tallaseehatchee  Creek. 
