238 GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 



worked, but the iron is too hard and brittle for some purposes, though for ordinary ends it 

 may be called a medium ore. It has only a distant resemblance to the Arnold ore of Peru. 

 The properties of the iron are undoubtedly due to a brown granular mineral, which is dis- 

 seminated through the whole vein, so far as it has been exposed. Very handsome fibrous 

 actinolite occurs in thin scams in the vein, but no other substance worthy of note has been 

 discovered in it. Even iron pyrites, so common in most veins, appears to be wanting 

 here. It appeared very strange to bloomers, that an ore which looked so well, and was so 

 soft and easy to reduce, should make an iron of a poor quality ; and they were little disposed 

 to believe that the brownish substance was the cause of the mischief, when I pointed it out 

 to them. Mixed as the phosphate is with this ore, there appears to be no method by which 

 it can be removed ; and the probability is that it may be still employed, yet only for the most 

 ordinary purposes. There may not, however, be so much objection to this ore for stoves and 

 other common castings. 



Barnum Vein. 



About half a mile west of the Sanford ore, is a very distinct vein, known in the vicinity as 

 the Barnum vein or bed. The vein is about seven feet thick, and dips west about thirty 

 degrees, or corresponds in dip and strike to the layers of the hornblende in which it is em- 

 braced. The ore is black, soft and friable, and free from foreign substances which are known 

 to injure the quality of iron. It is said also to work well in the forge. 



This vein, principally on account of the state of trade, or the small demand for American 

 iron, has not been in use since the survey commenced ; and in consequence of water which 

 has collected in the excavations, I was unable to make those examinations which are requisite 

 for a full determination of its value. I was, however, favorably impressed as it regarded the 

 quality and quantit}' of the ore. 



ILilTs Vein. 



I have now to describe several veins of an excellent quality, situated five or six miles from 

 Port Henry, or about three-fourths of a mile north of the Barnum vein. Although the rock 

 is the same as in the veins already described, yet the ore is associated with quartz, and the 

 state of aggregation is the most favorable for the production of iron. 



There are other circumstances which render these veins more interesting to the geologist. 

 Many of the openings into them disclose very decided evidences of mechanical force, or 

 disturbances which appear to be connected with effects produced by the upward projection of 

 the veins themselves. Changes in the amount and direction of the dip, the compression 

 which the veins have suffered at some points, the irregularities in the walls, etc., are some 

 of the phenomena brought to light in the working of these veins. The preceding ones, or 

 those which I liave already noticed, are exceedingly uniform in the amount of their dip, in 

 the perfect regularity of their strike, in their thickness, and in the absence of contortions, or 

 those changes which indicate mechanical violence. It will be my object to notice some of 



