232 Mineralogy of Orange County, N. Y. 
man’s fist, to pieces weighing a hundred pounds. It possesses 
unusually strong magnetic power. The neighbors, about the mine, 
say that masses of it have been known to lift a pair of kitchen tongs. 
A great abundance of specimens may be obtained from the heaps of 
rubbish about the excavation. 
It was my intention to have entered into a description of the New- 
ton minerals, from the specimens of them in my possession, and the 
notices respecting their deposit sent to me from, time to time, by Dr. 
Young; but Dr. Fowler having just forwarded an article relating to 
them for insertion in this Journal, and which appears in the present 
number, I shall content myself with adding a few particulars not no- 
ticed by him, with a view to elucidate still farther the condition of 
this remarkable locality. What I have to add is wholly abstracted 
from the letters of Dr. Young. It is situated twenty miles south-west 
from Amity meeting house, two and a half miles south-west of Ham- 
ilion’s inn, upon the Sparta and Milford Turnpike. It lies in a nar- 
row trough formed by two ranges of Limestone, which are elevated 
about sixty feet above the general level of the country. This trough, 
or narrow valley contains soil, through which are disseminated blocks 
of Limestone containing occasionally the various minerals mentioned 
by Dr. Fowler. Several excavations were made in this trough, ma- 
ny years ago, by some ignorant persons with a hope of finding silver. 
The substance which encouraged these undertakings, probably was 
Tron pyrites, which is occasionally found here along with the Horn- 
blende and Sapphire. It was among the loose masses thrown out 
by = authors of this enterprise, that the first pieces of Sapphire were 
found. In 1829, Dr. Young and Dr. Horton visited the spot 
found few or no signs of much examination having been made for 
ihe Sapphire. They turned over a number of stones around the ex- 
cavation which afforded the minerals, from which, as well as from 
the soil, they obtained the Sapphire in small quantity. In 1830, they 
visited it again, and found but one small block of Limestone, which 
contained the mineral, and which afforded them a great number of 
handsome crystals of this precious substance. In July, 1831, they 
spent two or three days there, assisted by five laborers, who were 
employed in digging, blasting, and breaking the blocks which were 
thought likely to afford the Sapphire. They found the mineral con- 
fined to a bason eighteen feet long and six feet wide, which they 
sunk to the depth of nine feet, taking out and examining every stone 
they met with. The bottom of this trench, they sounded with iron 
