1847.] Mining Report JV'o. 1. 193 



the business is every clay increasing, and being one which is neces- 

 sarily attended with greater expense than the ordinary kinds of bu- 

 siness, it becomes still more imperative duty to post up the facts and 

 classes of facts which have been discovered. It is for these ends 

 that we now propose to give a series of reports on the mines of 

 this country, and which we trust will not prove unacceptable to 

 our readers. We regard this kind of information as interesting to 

 the farmer. He is usually the owner of the soil, and it is for his 

 interest to know at least what the probabilities are for the exist- 

 ence of a valuable mine, or on the contrary what facts and phenom- 

 ena accompany a deposit of ore which prove it worthless. 



It is proper to observe here, that quantity of ore is not always a 

 fact of sufficient consequence to give value to a mine. It may be 

 valueless, simply from the hardness and toughness of the ore or rock 

 which contains it, as the ore has to be broken fine, and hence its 

 toughness may diminish its value. The distance from market, and a 

 variety of other circumstances modify the value of any given mass 

 of ore, or the presence of phosphate of lime, sulphuret of iron 

 mixed with an ore of iron. It is necessary therefore that all such 

 drawbacks upon the value of this kind of property should be well 

 known and understood. In such cases inspection is often sufficient 

 to enable the person who is skilled in these matters to set the 

 question of value at rest without the expense of a trial or an 

 analysis. 



Our first report is upon the Winter ore bed, a deposit of iron 

 ore which has been known for twenty years or more, and has 

 been worked at times with varied prospects. Before, however, 

 we enter upon the details of this report, it is proper that a few re- 

 marks should be made upon the geology of the region in which it 

 is situated, and this is the more proper inasmuch as we shall speak 

 of several mines in this vicinity. 



1. Geology of the region. — The region referred to, is situated 

 upon the borders of Essex and Clinton counties. The rock is gneiss, 

 though mixed with both fine grained and reddish granite. Veins of 

 granite and of quartz and small beds of coarse hornblende frequently 

 occurs, but, as a whole, the rock is quite homogeneous and presents 

 so few irregularities that very little requires to be said of it. The 

 neighborhood of the Winter ore bed, may be regarded as a mineral 

 district, inasmuch as numerous veins are known and worked in its 

 vicinity. This is the most striking feature in its geology. A 

 range of mountains pursuing a northeasterly direction and coming 

 from the southwest from Moriah and Chesterfied in Essex county, 

 terminates at Port Kent in Trembleau point, this range bounds this 

 mineral district on the southeast, and is more decidedly granitic; 

 it is also intermixed with beds of hypersthene rock, very good ex- 

 amples of which may be found near Port Kent. In this range, 



No. 19. 16 



