ESSEX COUNTY. 247 



With these general remarks upon the ores of Adirondack, I shall proceed to state, with 

 some minuteness, the facts which I have observed in the different places where tiie magnetic 

 oxide has been explored. 



Sanford Ore. 



It takes its name from the lake near which the mine is situated. The ore appears upon 

 the west side of a mountain six or seven liundred feet high. Towards the base, the subja- 

 cent rock is concealed by a thick stratum of drift, intermixed with many large boulders of 

 hypersthene rock. The mountain rises so gradually from the eastern border of tlie lake, that 

 loaded teams may be driven to or from the mine with ease. The greatest angular slope is 

 occupied by the ore, but does not probably exceed twenty-five degrees ; and the portion 

 below the mine, towards the lake, has a slope not exceeding five degrees. The distance of 

 the middle portion of the vein, from the lake, is about eighty rods. The ore occupies the 

 western face of the mountain, down which the slope is so equal, that an inclined plane might 

 be constructed from the mine to the lake, for the delivery of ore into boats, in case this 

 measure was deemed expedient. The ore bed is two miles south from the village of 

 Mclntyre. 



The color of the ore is black ; it is moderately coarse grained, being in this respect inter- 

 mediate between the fine grained ore east of the village, and the coarse black ore on which 

 the works are located. Structure of the mass, always crystalline, but rarely if ever compact ; 

 lustre, dull ; streak, black ; sufficiently hard to give sparks with steel ; texture, generally 

 rather firm, but never tough, and very frequently friable, constituting what miners call shot 

 ore. It never occurs in crystals. The surface masses of the ore are magnetic, but rarely 

 possess polarity. In the mass, the structure is slaty, resembling in this respect a regular 

 rock formation. It is probably owing to crystallization, as it is very difficult to conceive this 

 structure to have been produced by deposition. It is not, therefore, properly speaking, strati- 

 fication, though the lines of separation are parallel like those of veins of slate or gneiss. 

 The existence of this kind of structure favors very materially the quarrying of the ore, and 

 it is even possible to remove large masses with the assistance of an iron bar. The dip of the 

 layers is about seventy-five degrees to the east. Much of the ore, after it is raised, and has 

 been exposed for a time to the air, becomes quite loose in its texture, and its friability is 

 greatly increased. 



The portions of the vein adjacent to the walls, especially on the western side, are more or 

 less mixed with hypersthene and granular feldspar. The central and eastern portion of the 

 vein, for the space of three hundred feet, is umnixed with stony matter. The layers of rock 

 which appear at the western border probably belong to the surface, and, unless there is an 

 exception to a general rule, will disappear as the mine is worked downwards. 



In regard to the dimensions of the vein, it is proper to observe, that it is covered mostly 

 with soil, varying in depth from one to three feet, on which there is a heavy growth of timber. 

 It is not uncommon, however, to see the ore entirely exposed at the surface. To ascertain 

 the whole extent of the vein, as far as was practicable under existing circumstances, excava- 



