474 GEOLOGY OF OHIO 
county, Floodwood, on the Hocking river, in Athens county, and Moxa- 
hala in Perry county, in a triangular space about 15 by 18 miles. Within 
this district, and connected by a system of branch lines with the Hock- 
ing Valley, Muskingum Valley and Ohio Central Roads, lie the sus 
naces properly belonging to the Hocking Valley district. 
The native ores are mined at or near the furnaces, either upon 
the furnace property, or are brought in by farmers upon whose lands 
the exposure occurs, and who during such time as they can spare from 
the ordinary work of their farms, dig ore in small amounts and bring it 
to the furnaces. The Coal Measure ores, forming beds of from a few 
inches to some feet in thickness, crop out along the hill-sides over this 
region. The ore is obtained almost universally by “stripping,” which 
consists in removing the earth and slates from above the bed of ore, by 
digging out with pick and shovel, or, in some cases, using “scrapers ” 
for the same purpose. This process exposes a shelf or layer of ore 
which is readily removed by breaking or blasting. The extent to which 
the hill can be thus worked into will vary with its steepness, but does 
not often exceed 20 or 30 feet. 
When the depth in the hill becomes so great as to render the un- 
covering of the ore too expensive, the locality is abandoned and a new 
one worked. ‘‘ Drifting” for the ore is practiced somewhat, tunnels. 
or entries being run into the hill, and the narrow layer of ore mined 
out. The extent of these drift mines in the Hocking Valley district is 
limited ; in Lawrence county, however, some furnaces, as the Hecla, 
near Ironton, have established quite extensive mines; there the hill 
has been tunnelled for a distance of some hundreds of feet, and the ore 
removed by a regular long-wall system of mining, miners filling the 
empty space behind with the refuse gangue accompanying the ore. 
At present (1883) this mining in a small way has been largely 
given up, the ore supplies of the furnaces being derived from the prop- 
erties owned by the combination known as J. R. Buchtel & Co., the 
companies being made more independent of the necessarilly uncertain 
supply furnished by this sort of “ farmer mining.” 
The method of working has led to some curious and sometimes 
rather disastrous results as to variation in quality of ore. The ores in 
place are as a rule essentially carbonates of iron, and where drifted for, 
so as to expose the unaltered ore, present the usual blue or gray appear- 
ance of a spathic iron or siderite. These carbonates, however, soon 
