Notice of Steel Mine and Iron Works. 323 



country, both as respects the quantity and the quality of the iron it 

 has afforded. The following notice relates principally to the statis- 

 tics of the iron works of that place and its immediate vicinity ; the 

 items of which were obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Holley, 

 one of the principal proprietors in these establishments. 



The ore bed, which supplies these works, is situated in the west- 

 ern part of the town. It covers an area of several acres, forming a 

 moderate elevation; and is hence called "ore hill." The common 

 notions concerning its origin find little support in the appearances it 

 presents. It has frequently been supposed to be of more recent 

 formation than the mica slate rock to which it is immediately contigu- 

 ous ; and it is maintained by some, in consequence of the stalactitical 

 and fused like aspect of its ore, to have been subjected to a melting heat. 

 That the entire deposit possesses a tolerably uniform stratification, 

 however, except in places of limited extent, where the unusual pre- 

 ponderance of the ore has created slight disturbances, the observer 

 who descends into the different excavations cannot fail of discover- 

 mg ; and by comparing the direction and dip of the strata with those 

 of the adjacent mica slate, he will find them perfectly coincident; 

 thus affording the most satisfactory evidence that they are contempo- 

 raneous and identical formations. In order to form a more just idea 

 of the origin of this, and of all similarly situated beds, and to obtain an 

 explanation of their present condition, we are only to conceive that the 

 parent menstruum of the mica-slate in these particular localities, 

 , abounded with the hydrated peroxide of Iron, and that geodes of va- 

 rious dimensions, and more or less lined with stalactites, were formed 

 from the union of capillary crystals, according to the well known laws 

 of crystallization, and laid down with the particles of mica and quartz 

 into strata; and that the free infiltration of water into a cavernous or 

 geodiferous rock of such a character has produced, as might be ex- 

 pected, decomposing effects to a very considerable degree, so as to 

 convert its materials in part into clays and ochres, as we actually 

 find them at the present time. 



This bed of ore has been opened about one hundred years. 

 The grant to the original proprietors bears the date of October 27, 

 ' 731. During the first forty or fifty years, the quantity of ore raised 

 was small j but from that period to the present, from four to five 

 thousand tons have been raised, annually. At first, no duty was paid 

 to the owners of the ore ; afterwards the sum of twenty-live cents 



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