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THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



Notes on Mineville, Essex County, New 

 York, and Nearby Localities. 



BY ALFRED C. HAWKINS, 

 CORRESPONDING MEMBER PHILADELPHIA 

 MINERALOGICAL CLUB, SEWAREN, NEW 

 JERSEY. 



On the western shore of Lake Cham- 

 plain, fifteen or twenty miles north of 

 the southern extremity of the lake, 

 Crown Point, famous for its historical 

 associations, juts out from the New 

 York side. South of the point the lake 

 is more or less narrow and even 

 swampy at times. There is one spot 

 along this portion where high bluffs 

 approach closely, and here are the ruins 

 of the well-known Fort Ticonderoga. 

 North of Crown Point the lake imme- 

 diately widens into a bay which is three 

 or four miles across; further north the 

 lake reaches a maximum width of ten 

 miles. At Crown Point the distance 

 between the shores of New York and 

 Vermont does not exceed a few hun- 

 dred yards. Crown Point itself is rela- 

 tively low, broad and flat ; the opposite 

 shore shows the same characteristics 

 for fifteen or twenty miles east from the 

 lake; at that distance the Green Moun- 

 tains of Vermont rise like a wall, 

 stretching with a long, irregular sky 

 line from northeast to southeast. Crown 

 Point would naturally be a strong van- 

 tage point for the control of traffic on 

 Lake Champlain. The old fort, built 

 there in Revolutionary times, though 

 scarcely one hundred feet above the 

 level of the lake, had full command of 

 the water way because of its very nar- 

 rowness at this point. The fort ruins 

 consist of great embankments, ar- 

 ranged in the shape of a star, with a 

 moat outside and great stone barracks 

 still standing within. They mark a 

 practically impregnable position. 



Crown Point is composed of strata of 

 limestone, of Paleozoic age, which out- 

 crop with a steep dip. This brings 

 many successive strata into view on 

 the broad land surface here exposed. 

 This locality is chiefly interesting for 

 the fossils, of varying ages, which are 

 quite abundant and often perfectly pre- 

 served. The mineral locality that ap- 

 pears as "Crown Point" on the labels, 

 is near the station of that name on the 

 railroad, and must be four miles distant 



by road from the fort which is on the 

 end of the point. The minerals are 

 found near the contact of the lime- 

 stones with the crystalline gneisses of 

 the highlands. A sort of apatite called 

 eupyrchroite, in mammillary, grayish 

 green masses, is fairly abundant in the 

 limestone here. It is indicated that the 

 apatite found at this place has been 

 mined but is now no longer worked. 

 Apatite is also reported in elongated, 

 terminated prisms in the limestone. In 

 the same formation come fine brown 

 tourmalines, chlorite, quartz crystals, 

 calcite and pyrite crystals. In the 

 gneiss, at the contact, are brown garnet 

 crystals of good quality, wernerite, 

 oligoclase (aventurine), zircon crystals, 

 chalcopyrite and epidote in small, im- 

 perfect crystals. It may be added that 

 these are not always as easily found as 

 it might at first appear. However, the 

 locality is evidently a good one and 

 well worth a visit. 



The Ticonderoga locality is well 

 known, chiefly on account of its excep- 

 tional production of graphite. Other 

 minerals are evidently not lacking, 

 however, and it might be worth while 

 to enumerate them as reported : 

 Ticonderoga. Kirby Graphite Mine, 3 

 M. N. W. Ticonderoga. 



Graphite (crystals and folia), pyrox- 

 ene (large, dark green crystals carrying 

 inclusions of calcite), wernerite (per- 

 fect crystals), titanite (yellowish gray 

 crystals), tourmaline (black), apatite, 

 calcite and quartz. These seem to occur 

 in crystalline limestone, gneiss and 

 schist. 



The other Ticonderoga locality is at 

 Chilson Lake (Paragon Lake) where, 

 in contact, gneiss and limestone are 

 found : apatite, garnet, pyroxene (crys- 

 tals and coccolite), Vesuvianite, wer- 

 nerite, magnetite and blue calcite. 



The more famous of these, the 

 graphite locality, which we usually 

 associate with the name, Ticonderoga, 

 is very difficult of access, so much so, 

 in fact, as to be visited by few collect- 

 ors. 



Northwest from the end of Crown 

 Point, across the bay formed by that 

 promontory, appears the town of Port 

 Henry, New York. The most striking 

 features of the town, when seen from 



