Ill  CONTRIBUTIONS    TO    ECONOMIC    GEOLOGY,   L906,   PART    I. 
HORACE    THOMPSON    MINE. 
The  Horace  Thompson  mine  is  about  »\  miles  northeast  of  Falls- 
ton,  in  Cleveland  County.  It  has  been  opened  by  half  a  dozen  shafts 
with  considerable  tunneling  from  them.  Much  material  lias  been 
removed,  and  owing  to  the  decomposed  nature  of  the  rock  formations 
and  the  probably  scant  timbering  used  most  of  these  workings  have 
fallen  in  and  the  ground  above  them  has  subsided  several  feet.  The 
openings  are  within  an  area  about  60  yards  east  and  west  by  20 
yards  north  and  south.  The  country  rock  is  garnetiferous  gneiss  and 
schist.  Cyanite  is  another  important  constituent  in  parts  of  it.  Tbl 
garnets,  which  are  up  to  1  '  inches  in  diameter,  weather  out  in  the  soil 
near  the  mine.  The  products  of  weathering  consist  chiefly  of  clay 
through  which  abundant  fragments  of  hematite  and  tufts  of  cyanite 
impregnated  with  hematite  are  scattered.  The  strike  of  the  rock 
near  the  mine  is  mostly  east  and  west,  swinging  to  northwest  in 
places,  and  the  dip  is  nearly  vertical.  In  two  of  the  shafts  with 
their  tunnels  on  the  north  side  of  the  deposit  (not  yet  fallen  in)  there 
were  quartz  ledges  and  streaks  in  the  large  kaolinized  feldspar  for- 
mation exposed.  Blocks  of  mica  several  inches  in  diameter  had  been 
left  in  the  roof  of  one  of  these  tunnels  lying  in  the  feldspar  between 
the  wall  and  one  of  the  quartz  masses.  Small  blocks  were  included 
in  the  quartz  itself.  It  seems  probable  that  this  pegmatite  formation 
i^  limited  in  extent,  for  an  opening  made  about  20  yards  east  of  the 
main  workings  exposed  a  small  pegmatite  body  2  or  :i  feet  thick  with 
a  northwest  strike,  thus  cutting  across  the  direction  id  which  the 
main  mass  appeared  to  be  running. 
This  mine  has  produced  a  large  amount  of  good-sized  mica.  The 
color  of  the  mica  is  clear  •'rum"  and  the  quality  excellent.  The 
same  may  he  said  of  the  majority  of  the  mines  of  this  part  of  Clevel 
land  County  and  Lincoln  County  adjoining.  Quartz  ledges  are  other 
features  common  to  many  of  the  mines  of  this  section.  The  difficult 
ties  encountered  in  working  the  Thompson  mine  are  found  in  nearly  all 
the  mines  of  this  region,  namely,  large  amounts  of  water  to  handle, 
formations  that  require  much  timbering,  and  the  apparent  pinchingj 
out  of  the  mica-bearing  rock  in  one  or  more  directions. 
COWARD    MOUNTAIN    MINK. 
The  Coward  Mountain  mine  is  near  the  top  of  the  south  end  of 
Coward  Mountain,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Cariey  Fork  Valley,  Jackson 
County.  The  notable  features  are  the  occurrence  of  sheetlike  horsesi 
of  wall  rock  and  streaks  of  quartz  parallel  to  the  walls  of  the  pegma- 
tite. The  country  rock  is  hard  garnetiferous  mica  gneiss,  somewhat 
schistose  near  the  contact  with  the  pegmatite.  The  latter  is  about 
10  feet  thick  and  strikes  about  X.  45°  E.,  with  a  dip  of  75°  \W. 
