ESSEX COUNTY. 235 



Saxe Ore Bed. 



The first which I shall notice is the Saxe ore bed, near the village in Crown-Point. It has 

 been used formerly in the forge and furnace, but I am not informed of its reputation in the 

 manufacture of iron. It has been abandoned for many years. It is in gneiss, mixed with a 

 large proportion of hornblende. The point of greatest interest in this bed, is the change which 

 the ore has suffered. It is a peroxide, but has the crystalline form and structure of the mag- 

 netic oxide ; color reddish brown, streak light red. It does not preserve the direct course of 

 an ordinary vein, but appears in irregular masses disseminated through a hornblende rock. 



There can remain scarce a doubt but that this ore is one which has gradually changed from 

 the protoxide to the peroxide, by the absorption of an additional quantity of oxygen ; and 

 it might be called limonitc or hematite, but its structure is that of the magnetic oxide. The 

 change in this mass of ore is, however, greater than that of another interesting vein in an 

 adjacent county ; for here it is both internal and external ; that is, the color of the ore indi- 

 cates the change it has undergone : while in the one alluded to, the internal change would not 

 be suspected from the external appearance. In a few instances, I have observed octahedrons 

 changed throughout to a peroxide, retaining still their forms, and in a good degree their 

 lustre. 



From all the facts which I have been able to gather, I am confident the Saxe ore will work 

 easy in the forge or furnace, and make at die same time a good quality of iron. It is cer- 

 tainly agreeable to experience, that those ores which absorb oxygen, and abound in red 

 masses or stains, prove valuable ones for reduction. 



There are two or three other localities in Crown-Point and Ticonderoga, at which a red ore 

 is obtained ; but thej"- do not furnish it in quantities sufficient to make it an object to work for 

 the forge or furnace. They have been employed for paints, to a limited extent. 



At or near Shelving rock, the magnetic oxide occurs in connection with gneiss and primary 

 limestone : it is in insulated masses, which are sometimes of a cylindrical shape, and four or 

 five inches in diameter, penetrating the strata perpendicularly for two feet, and then disap- 

 pearing entirely. 



A much more extensive mass, in the form of a regular vein, has been opened by Mr. Foot 

 of Port Henry, about four miles southwest from the landing. The ore is much mixed with 

 stone at the surface ; but in the midst of the vein, we find some portions sufficiently rich in 

 iron to be used with profit in a furnace. The surface only of this vein has been exposed ; 

 and what one of this character will prove on being deeply opened, remains to be shown. It 

 has much the character of a trap dyke, and might be considered a ferruginous trap, or an iron 

 stone, though it has not that jaspery hardness which is common to those masses as they 

 usually occur in beds of hematite. 



In these veins and masses, there is only a slight disposition to crystallize ; the structure is 

 mostly compact ; the texture is only slightly granular, and there is only a slight removal of 

 the substance from a stony appearance. I have noticed these masses more for the bearing 



