Part I. Report of progress in 1869, by J. S. Newberry, chief geologist. Part II. Report of progress in the second district, by E. B. Andrews, assist. geologist. Part III. Report on geology of Montgomery County, by Edward Orton, assist. geologist.

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tons, and of this at least one-third is supposed to have been smelted
with Ohio coal. The Lake Superior ores are almost entirely free from
phosphorous, sulphur, arsenic and titanium, the ingredients which so injuriously affect iron ores elsewhere; and the magnetic ores of Michigan,
of which the supply is now known to be large, are the purest of which I
have any knowledge. From these facts it is evident that the Lake Superior
iron ores are peculiarly adapted to the production of all the finer grades
of iron and steel; and indeed it is the opinion of our most accomplished
metallurgists that the manufacture of steel in future years, so far as this
country is concerned, will be based almost exclusively upon these ores.
As I have before stated, the coals of the Alleghany coal field are superior to those of the West; and it is certain that nowhere can an abundant
supply of mineral fuel suitable for smelting the Lake Superior ores be so
cheaply obtained as in Ohio. Some portion of these ores are now, and
will continue to be, smelted with charcoal on the upper peninsula of
Michigan, but the supply of this fuel is so limited! that it will play but
an insignificant part in the iron manufacture of the future.
I have already referred to the iron ores of Missouri. These have become famous through the descriptions published of the magnificent deposits of Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, Sheppard Mountain, &c. These
are specular ores of excellent quality, and are of importance to us, since
they are now used to a considerable extent in the southern part of the
State, and still larger quantities are destined to be brought to our coals
which outcrop on the banks of the Ohio.
The ores which I have enumerated, constitute with our native ores, the
main source of supply to our furnaces. I should add, however, to this
list one other variety; that which is known as the "fossil ore," a stratified red hematite, found in the Clinton group, and which forms a belt of
out-crop extending, with more or less intermission, from Dodge county,
Wisconsin, across a portion of Canada, entering New York at Sodus Bay,
passing through Oneida county where it has received the name of the
" Clinton ore," thence running down, through central Pennsylvania, Virginia and East Tennessee, into Georgia and Alabama. In this latter
region it is known as the "Dyestone ore," from the fact that it has been
employed by the inhabitants for imparting a reddish-brown tint to cloth.
This Clinton ore is an anhydrous peroxide, containing from 40 to 50 per
cent. of metallic iron, and generally a notable per centage of phosphorus.
Its use in Ohio has depended upon this latter quality, from the fact that
it imparts a "cold-shortness " to iron made from it, and is supposed to
correct the red-shortness of sulphurous iron.
Within our own territory we have all the varieties of iron that are ever
associated with coal, viz: blackband, kidney ore, stratified ore-or as it
is called block ore —and, in less abundance, brown hematite, the hydrated
peroxide of iron. Of these, the blackband is a bitumous shale, largely