The Clinton Iron-Ore Deposits In Alabama.

work have been published from time to time by the Survey.' A detailed report on the Birmingham district, with maps, has been completed, and will be published within the next year." In the following paper it is aimed to present only an outline of the geologic relations of the ores, since the Appalachian geology of Alabama has been discussed by many previous writers, but to describe rather fully the ore of the Birmingham district, and to discuss its relations and probable extent. IT. OUTLINE OF THE GEOLOGY. 1. Stratigraphy. The pre-Pennsylvanians rocks exposed in and along the borders of the valley-regions of Alabama, range from middle Cambrian to Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous), and at the SW. extremities of the valleys these rocks are overlain by coastal-plain deposits of Cretaceous and Tertiary age. A generalized section of the pre-Pennsylvanian Paleozoic rocks for the valley-regions is given in Table I. TABLE I.-Section of Pre-Pennsylvanian Paleozoic Rocks in Valley-Regions of Alabama. System. Formation and character. Thickness. Ft. Shale and sandstone 300 to 2,200 Carboniferous (Mississippian- Limestone and shale 300 to 800) I Sandstone and shale 50 to 200 1 Fort Payne chert and limestone 100 to 300 Devonian Chattanooga shale 0 to 30 Silurian Clinton (" Rockwood ") shale, sand¬ stone, and iron-ore 200 to 700 Ordovician Chickamauga ("Trenton") limestone.. 200 to 800 Cambro-Ordovician Knox dolomite and chert 1 2,200 to 2,700 basal dolomite 500 to 600 Cambrian Conasauga shale and limestone 1,000" to 1,500 - I a Base not. exposed.