150 Reports on the Geology of the State of Maine. 



so very bold that their outcropping edges, on the removing of the 

 soil, would expose the coal beds without it. The report speaks 

 of the many wild speculations that had been entered into in 

 searching for coal, where it was geologically impossible that any 

 could exist. We ourselves happen to know of one instance, in 

 which some persons in Maine, believing that they had discovered 

 indications of a coal mine on the Kennebec River, actually sent 

 a quantity of black tourmaline to Boston, which was exhibited 

 by one of the principal coal dealers there as anthracite coal, and 

 in a few days all the necessary implements for boring into a solid 

 ledge of ^ram^e were prepared and sent to the spot. The ex- 

 ploration was not abandoned until the sum of two thousand dol- 

 lars had been expended ; and we believe the history of mining in 

 this country, does not afford an instance of more blind and deter- 

 mined disregard of the principles of science, than this. Not many 

 months afterwards, a person, probably on his own responsibility, 

 visited Boston to obtain subscribers to stock in a new mining 

 company, and brought with him specimens of gneiss and mica 

 slate, in which he declared he had found a bed of bituminous 

 coal near the mouth of the Kennebec River. One or two per- 

 sons, known to the writer, became subscribers to the stock ; and 

 it was not until after one of them took occasion to visit the spot, 

 that the gross fraud was detected. Pieces of coal were found 

 there, but they came from Newcastle. 



The most valuable and extensive iron mine discovered in 

 Maine, is on the Aroostook River. It is a compact red Hematite. 

 Its situation, in the midst of water power, and an abundance of 

 wood for charcoal, and its being also on the frontier of the State, 

 and near the United States Military Post, renders it, in the opin- 

 ion of Dr. Jackson, a favorable site for the erection of a national 

 foundry. 



*' The bed is included in red and green argillaceous slate rocks, and 

 runs in a N. W. and S. E. direction to an unknown extent. It is thirty- 

 six feet wide, and was traced by us to the length of 1000 feet, while there 

 is not a doubt that it runs across the country to an iramense extent, and 

 probably belonging to the same range as the great bed of iron ore that I 

 discovered last year in Woodstock. Its direction would cause its line to 

 strike in the township belonging to Williams College and Groton Acad- 

 emy, situate near Houlton, and it will probably be found to cut through 

 this town. It is of great extent and evidently inexhaustible. Situated 

 upon a great and navigable river, where a large flat boat may run to the 

 St. John, there being but one obstruction at the falls, near its mouth, 



