II. IRON ORE.--The iron ores of Washington Territory consist of Bog ore, Brown ore (Limonite), some Red, or Specular ore (Hematite), and Magnetic ore (Magnetite). The bog ore has been found in considerable quantities underlying the flats bordering Puget Sound, and has been worked in a furnace on Bellingham Bay. These ores, no doubt, come from the decomposition of the limonites, the magnetites and the basaltic rocks of the high lands, especially on the Cascade Mountains. These Bellingham Bay ores generally have an excess of phosphorus, and yield about 42 per cent. of metallic iron. Brown ore is reported on the Skagit River, sufficiently abundant, perhaps, but not containing more than 40 per cent. metallic iron. I saw a remarkable deposit of brown ore on the Willamette, near Portland, Oregon. It is a horizontal stratum varying from 4 to 20 feet in thickness, lying between masses of basalt. It has been worked in the Oswego furnace, but yielded only about 40 per cent. metallic iron. I did not see any specular ore in place in Washington Territory, but saw samples, said to have been brought from near the Middle Fork of Snoqualmie River. [Sidenote: The great magnetic ore beds of Cascade Mountains.] [Sidenote: Resembles the Cranberry ore deposits.] But unquestionably the most important, as well as the largest, are the magnetic ore beds on the Cascade Mountains. These ores are found 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the chief water-courses on those high ridges and peaks which make up the Cascade Range along the headwaters of the Snoqualmie, on the west side of the mountain, and of the Yakima on the east flank of the mountain. These ores are underlaid by syenite and quartzite, and overlaid by limestone. The ore itself is found in conditions similar to that of the Cranberry ore in the Unaka Mountains of North Carolina; that is, it lies in pockets of various sizes in hornblendic, porphyritic and epidotic rocks. [Sidenote: Guye Mine on Mount Logan.] I visited two exposures of this ore, one on Mount Logan and the other on Mount Denny. These are only a mile or two from the line of the railroad. On Mount Logan there was only one large outcrop of iron-bearing rocks, but float was seen at numerous points on the mountain. The main exposure showed an ore-bearing rock, presenting a horizontal front some sixty feet in length, and forty to fifty feet in height or thickness. At one place a considerable area in this space seemed to be pure ore. For the rest, the pockets were smaller, and, of course, the amount of rock proportionally larger. What is to be found on going in from the surface can never be told in advance in ore beds of this sort. In working the great mine of Cranberry, North Carolina, the largest body of ore was reached 100 to 200 feet from the surface.