a. [f. L. ferr-um + -(I)FEROUS.] Producing or yielding iron; ferriferous rock, a rock containing iron ore.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., I. 486. It sometimes presents acicular crystals of selenite, with brown spots, which this excellent mineralogist suspects to be ferriferous carbonate of lime.
1871. J. P. Lesley, in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., XII., June, 137. The fire clay under the ferriferous coal is usually about 4 feet thick.
1883. Anthropological Jrnl., 322. Black heaps are more or less common in most of the boggy valleys from Wicklow through Wexford into Waterford, in connection with certain ferriferous rocks.
