Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-11
OUR IRON ORE DEPOSITS.
Prof. Sterry's Paper on Stratas Listened to
With Interest-Statistics on the Amount
of Pig Iron Turned Out the Past Year
and Where 1t Came From,

Prof. Sterry's Paper Stratas Listened to
With Interest-Statistics on the Amount
of Pig Iron Turned Out the Past Year
and Where 1t Came From.
AS Prof. I. Sterry Hunt was not present
the Institute was determined to have the
speech he was billed to deliver and loudly
called for the Professors paper. 1t was
read by the matter, was found characteristic
OF the Past President of the American So
ciety. The pape- treated of the "Iron Ores
Of the United States" and was as follows:
Over $500. 900 tons Of pig iron we're produced
in the United States during the year ending
June 30. 1890. including about 500, 900 tons from
imported ores. Of the 5000 600 in round num-
bers SO per cent we're made from ores mined to
the east of the Mississippi, and the remainder,
with Insignificant exceptions, in the State of
Missouri, near the western bank of that great
river. The supply of native ores is, therefore,
essentially from the eastern portion of our
country. From the Mississippi stretching west
ward to the frontier range OF the Rocky
Mountains, and in that great mountain range
ITSELF are treasures alike of iron and coal which
await development while still farther West
the vast American basin, and its Pacific mount
ain belt, have as yet attracted attention chiefly
for their rich stores of gold, silver, copper and
mercury.
WHERE THE REGION IS CONFINED.
Up to the present time, then. it may be said
that the iron industry of the United States is
confined to the great region drained by the
Mississippi and Ohio and their tributary rivers
southwark toward the Gulf, by the northern
chain of lakes discharged by the st. Lawrence,
and to the Atlantic mountain belt, whose DRAM
age waters find their way by more direct chan
nels to the Atlantic. The great physical feat
hale f&1,.
lean continent are remarkable. Between the
eastern front of the COrdilleras i'll Colorado
and the mountains of the Atlantic belt and the
Appalachians. which stretch from New England
and Eastern New York to Alabama, spreads the
vast region traversed by navigable rivers, from
Lake Superior southwark to the Gulf of
Mexico and eastward to the:Gulf of St. Law
renee. In one place alone is the great Atlantic
barrier broken. This is where the tidal and
navigable waters of the Hudson river traverse
the Highlands, and. permitted by the sinking
away of the Appalachians in Southern New
York. connect the waters of the Hudson,
through the Erie Canal with those of Lake
Erie and through Lake Champlain with the ST.
Lawrence. affording system of internal navi-
CATION which must always give to the City of
New York commercial supremacy on our
Eastern shores.
Coming back to the eastern part of the
United ST rates, and to the region defined as the
Appalachian Valley, lying along the south
western border of the great Atlantic belt, and
traceable from Western Vermont as far south
history of American iron working, the import
ance as a source of iron of the brown ores of
that region was recognized, and they were
smelted more than a century since III Western
Connecticut and in Pennsylvania. These
hydrous ores, for the most part Hmonlte and
generally known as brown hematite, are found
imbeded in soft deposits more or less clay-like
in character, and consisting of certain crystal
line schlsts altered and greatly softened in stu
by chemical changes, often to depth of 100
feet or more. These folded and inclined strata.
which have been sheltered from erosion by the
belt of older crystalline rocks along their
border. merit an especial study alike for them.
selves and for the ore deposits which they in.
clude.
MAY BE STUDIED HERE.
The similarity in form, distribution and mode
of occurrence of these hydrous ores is well
known to those engaged in the mining of them.
and may be advantageously studied in parts of
Western New England and in Duchess county.
N. Y. in portions of New Jersey and through.
out the great Appalachian Valley in Pennsyl-
vania and farther southwards where thcy are
also associated in many places with anhydrous
Oxydzed ores-magnetite and red heinatjte
The nature OF all these deposits, but especially
of the hydrous ores and their decayed strata.
as well as their geological age, has been the
subject OF much vague speculation and unfor-
tunately of great misconceptions on the part of
many geologists, nor is it too much to say that