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breadth, sometimes twenty or thirty feet wide, which preserves a 

 nearly north and south direction for several hundred feet. What 

 the total length of this may be no one pretends to know, but two 

 miles due south from where it is exposed in the present Flemington 

 Mine, there are strong indications of a belt of precisely similar 

 character. In the Flemington Mine, the ore, which is a mixture 

 chiefly of gray sulphate and carbonate of copper, exists intimately 

 blended or incorporated with the semi-indurated and altered 

 sandstone, and parts of the mass have therefore somewhat the 

 aspect of a conglomerate of re-cemented fragments, the me- 

 talliferous part acting as the cement. Though usually minutely 

 disseminated, it occurs occasionally in lumps of great purity and 

 considerable size. The line of rock containing the ore has no 

 definite separation from the unaltered red shale outside of it, and 

 it is therefore not always easy to judge of the precise space 

 which it occupies. The ore in this mine is of good quality, and 

 so far as I have been able to ascertain, the dimensions of the 

 band containing it, are such as to admit of the existence of a 

 large mine here, should the proportion of metallic matter in the 

 rock prove profitable. The mine seems to have been very judi- 

 ciously worked ; cuttings being made across the ore in a series of 

 east and west alleys to ascertain its extent and position. But 

 while mining is of all arts the most precarious, it is especially so 

 where the metalliferous deposit does not occur under the shape of 

 a regular or true vein or lode. The doubts which some entertain 

 regarding the final success of this and other copper mines in the 

 State, proceed chiefly from the views entertained regarding the 

 manner in which the copper ore is diffused. 



The Nechanic Mine lies apparently on the metalliferous belt of 

 rock above spoken of. The ore occurs under circumstances very 

 similar to those at the Flemington Mine. It is not at present 

 productive. 



From the excellent quality of the ore of this belt, it is to be 

 regretted that a regular vein of some extent cannot be discovered, 

 the disseminated condition in which the ore exists, rendering all 

 mining operations very expensive, and limiting the supply of ore. 

 These mines are all near a narrow dike of trap of scarcely per- 

 ceptible elevation, which runs southward from the main ridge of 

 trap and altered rock, northwest of Flemington, and extends a 



