22 Geological Reports on the State of New York. 



sists principally of limonite, which varies in its state of aggregation from 

 a yellow pulverulent mass to a compact brown ironstone. It is mammil- 

 lary, botryoidal, spongiform, and with stalactical shapes, some of which have 

 hemispherical and others acicular terminations, others are like bunches 

 of pendant moss. The solid stalactical forms are fibrous, with radii di- 

 verging from the center. The specimens are beautiful, and highly orna- 

 mental as curiosities and as minerals. The mines yield an aggregate of 

 about 20,000 tons of ore per annum, which is worth at the bed $1 50 to 

 f 2 50 per ton. There are ten furnaces, it is said, within twelve miles of 

 Amenia, which make, in the aggregate, about 10,000 tons of iron per 

 annum. They aiford employment to about one thousand men as ore dig- 

 gers, coal men, teamsters, smelters, limestone diggers, &c. Some of 

 these furnaces are in Connecticut, near the line, and it is about as well 

 for New York as if they were within her own limits. All the iron is car- 

 ried to the Hudson River, and then shipped to various parts. There are 

 two furnaces in Columbia and Dutchess counties not included in the above 

 number, viz. Ancram and Hopewell furnaces. It is estimated that the 

 aggregate annual value of the pig iron made at these twelve furnaces, is 

 $400,000 to $500,000 per annum. Manufactories of malleable iron in 

 various forms, are attached to some of these furnaces, as the Columbia 

 furnace in Kent, the Ancram furnace, and some others. The malleable 

 iron from these furnaces is highly valued for its toughness and softness, 

 and is extensively employed in making anchors, musket and pistol barrels, 

 wire, &/C." 



" The Amenia and Salisbury ore beds are the most extensively wrought 

 of any iron mines, of this kind, of ore in the United States, and the iron 

 from these beds is considered superior in softness and toughness to that 

 of any other mines in the country. 



" The Amenia ore bed yields 5,000 tons of ore per annum, which gives 

 on an average 50 per cent, of pig iron. The mine is worked to the day 

 like an open quai'ry. A layer of earth and gravel, and broken rocks, cov- 

 ers the ore from five to twenty feet in thickness. This is first removed, 

 and the ore then excavated. They have not yet found the bottom of the 

 ore in any place, although in one pit they have excavated into it 45 feet. 

 It improves in quality the farther they descend. No estimate can be formed 

 of the amount of ore in this bed, which probably unites with the others 

 north and south of it. Estimating its breadth at 100 yards, and its length 

 at 1,000 yards, with 15 yards depth, through which it is open, it is capa- 

 ble of yielding 1,500,000 tons of ore, and at the present rate of working 

 will last 300 years." 



