HOCKING VALLEY: | | 707 
IRON ORKS. 
_ The lowest iron ore of the ceries is on the horizon of the massive cal- 
careous ore found north of old Straitsville, on the level of Monday Creek. 
Its outcrop may be traced near the base of the hills in the neighborhood 
of Haydenville, with a fire-clay and faint traces of coal smut below it. 
It is the horizon of Coal No. 3, which is ordinarily capped with a blue, 
cherty limestone, frequently ferriferous. Here it shows a thick band of 
blue, calcareous ore, not thick enough to be mined by drifting, or to war- 
rant much stripping, but sufficient to justify further explorations on this 
level. ee ale 
The ore above I have called the Haydenville drift ore, as it was exten- 
sively mined by drifting some sixteen years ago, for use in the old 
Hocking furnace at that place. It was reported to be a solid block-ore, 
ten inches thick. Frem the specimens seen, I should call it a brown ox- 
ide, of good quaiity. 
The third ore I have seen opened only on the hill directly above the 
last. It is there fifty feet above the drift ore, and fifteen feet above a 
thick bed of fire-clay, which is mined for the Columbus potteries. The 
ore is from two to three feet thick, a blue, silicious carbonate, changed 
upon the outside of the layers to a yellow sesquioxide. It is not as rich 
as some of the other ores, but may prove of sufficient value to be profit- 
ably worked. 
The fourth ore from the bottom is the equivalent of the “‘ Baird ore,” 
which is ordinarily just below the fire-clay of Coal No. 5, often resting 
on a drab, cherty limestone.- This horizon carries two ores, only one of 
which I have found largely developed in the same locality, one directly 
above the coal, one below the fire-clay. And in all cases where there isa 
considerable body of the ore the coal is reduced to a mere carbonaceous 
shale. The thick bed of fire-clay is a characteristic indication of this 
horizon. On Mr. Peter Hayden’s property, near Haydenville, this ore is 
from eighteen inches to two feet thick, and of good quality. On 
the Brooks property, section 29, Ward township, it is a good gray ore, 
and its presence is indicated in all the western part of this territory 
where the horizon of No. 5 is above drainage, and ranges from about 
twenty-five to thirty-five feet below the Great Vein. On Charles Robbins’s 
land, south of Nelsonville, it is thirty feet below the Great Vein, is two 
and a half feet thick, a very rich brown oxide, changed on the outcrop to 
a soft yellow sesquioxide, of great excellence. On Lost Run of Monday 
Creek, in the roof of Coal No. 5, there is a silicious ore, much like the 
“Baird ore,’ two to two and a half feet thick, which is also found on 
