302 GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 



Quality and quantity of the Cook ore. 



The ore of the Cook vein is black. Some parts of the vein are granular or soft, as this 

 state is usually called by miners ; other portions are compact, or in firm masses. It is a rich 

 vein even near the surface, and it improved as the excavation proceeded downwards. It is 

 not, however, so pure in the vein as to admit of smelting previous to washing. Its gangue is 

 quartz or flint, black mica and hornblende. Its supporting rock is granite. The course of 

 the vein is north and south. Parallel with the thirteen foot vein, which is to be considered as 

 the main vein, are three others ; one of six, one of three, and another of two feet. The hill 

 on which these veins are found, is two hundred feet above the plain. Its location is therefore 

 quite favorable for mining operations, as it will be for a long time easy to drain, and convenient 

 for removing the ore. 



The iron made from this ore is of the first quality. Along with hardness, there is sufficient 

 elasticity and toughness to make it valuable for spikes, horseshoes, bands and nails. The 

 grain is fine and bright, with a clear metallic lustre ; it hammers very smoothly, and presents 

 a very fine even compact surface. In fine, it resembles very nearly the old Russia sable, so 

 celebrated in this country. The ore makes iron fast ; and considering all its properties, it 

 must be considered one of the most valuable veins in the county of Clinton. 



In estimating the quantity of ore which the Cook vein may yield, it is proper to take into 

 the account the four parallel veins. It will be seen that their aggregate width is twenty-four 

 feet. These several veins are so near each other, that by transverse cuttings, all of them 

 may be worked as one vein. The examination of the vein proved also the increase of ore 

 downwards, an increase produced in part by an increase of the width of the vein, and also 

 by the disappearance of the stony matter in the vein. The arrangement of the ore and earthy 

 matter is mostly in vertical parallel bands or stripes. It is evident, in many instances, that 

 there is a larger amount of rock in the vein near the surface. This was evidently the case 

 with the Cook vein, though it would not be an uncommon circumstance if the predominance 

 of earthy matter should be found restored deeper in the vein. Still the indications were favo- 

 rable to an increase of ore, rather than a diminution of it. 



The Cook vein may be traced in a northerly direction by the masses of ore at the surface 

 of the rock, for one and a half miles. At its extreme northerly boundary, it appears again 

 in heavy masses, and has there been opened by Mr. Stone, and is now successfully and pro- 

 fitably worked. The ore of this vein is highly magnetic, and possesses polarity distinctly. 

 This is a property, however, which is more frequently possessed by that portion of the vein 

 above the surface of the rock, or that portion which has been exposed to light. It often 

 happens that ore which is raised from a depth of twenty-five or thirty feet, exhibits at first 

 neither polarity nor magnetism ; but after exposure to ligiit and atmospheric agents, this pro- 

 perty is strongly developed ; indicating, it would seem, some connection with imponderables 

 as light, caloric and electricity, at the surface, which does not exist far beneath it. 



