328 GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 



imperfect garnets and some black mica. Hyperstlienc is mostly wanting in the rock. This 

 vein is about three miles from the Deer river furnace, upon a hill one or two hundred feet 

 above the valley of Deer river. This vein supplied, for a time, the ore used in the furnace 

 at Duane. The castings made of this ore arc of a superior quality, being very tough, and 

 not liable to break : it is also easy to reduce in the furnace. 



Deer river vein is about twenty feet wide, and it pursues a direction nearly east-northeast. 

 It has regular walls, which are very well defined. The ore is clearly composed of a large 

 proportion of the protoxide, being strongly magnetic, and sometimes possessing polarity. It 

 has been traced seventy or eighty rods upon the surface, and furnished the strongest indica- 

 tions of a great amount of ore. 



Another vein of magnetic oxide has been opened near the residence of Mr. James Duane. 

 It is sufficiently rich for the furnace, and probably is one of the best for castings in this neigh- 

 borhood. It is a wide vein, and the amount of ore inexhaustible ; and as it is situated upon 

 a high eminence, it is favorable for mining. 



Another vein, known in this neighborhood as the Steel ore, is found about four miles east 

 of Duane furnace, upon a hill eighty rods south of the Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike. 

 The hill is a steep and abrupt rise of five or six hundred feet above the road. Like the 

 preceding ores, that of this vein is a mixture of fine and coarse, but a larger proportion of 

 the latter. It contains, too, more hypcrsthene than the Deer river ore, which may be dis- 

 tinguished in the ore by its bronze-like lustre. It is sometimes iridescent. Small particles 

 of sulphuret of iron sometimes appear in it, but not in sufficient quantity to afli'ect the reduced 

 iron. It contains also small masses of feldspar, and crystals of garnet. The outside of the 

 ore becomes yellowish brown by exposure, probably from the decomposition of pyrites. The 

 recent fracture presents rather a high lustre, intermixed with surfaces which are dull. There 

 is a tendency to crystallization ; the mass, as usual, breaking naturally into angular pieces. 

 The vein pursues a northerly course, with a dip to the east. Its width is variable, being 

 from a few inches to seven or eight feet. It is greatly disturbed by trap dykes, which are 

 obstacles of some importance to an economical pursuit of the ore. The walls, as would be 

 inferred, are broken and irregular. It is embraced in a rock composed principally of horn- 

 blende, with some quartz and feldspar. 



I may rcinark here, that one of the differences which prevail in the rocks of Essex, Clinton 

 and Franklin, is that the latter are supplied with a greater amount of hornblende and black 

 mica ; a circumstance, however, which appears to be of little consequence, so far as the value 

 of the ores are concerned. Sometimes they are more difficult to break. 



A few remarks upon this ore, as it regards its steel propci'tics, as they are termed, will be 

 expected in this place. Besides having made a report upon this subject, and finding that I 

 have been misunderstood by some, I deem it but right that I should in this place disabuse 

 public opinion in relation to the true character and nature of the ore under consideration. 



The ore, as has been remarked, is the common magnetic oxide, dilTering in no essential 

 respect from the ordinary ores which arc ranked under this name. It has no better title than 

 any of the others to the designation of a steel ore ; that is, it contains in itself no clement 



