232 Mineralogy of Orange County, JV. 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. Il is situated twenty miles south-west 

 from Amity meeting house, two and a half miles south-west of Ham- 

 ilton'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 

 Iron pyrites, which is occasionally found here along wiih the Horn- 

 blende and Sapphire. It was among the loose masses thrown out 

 by the authors of this enterprise, that the first pieces of Sapphire were 

 found. In 1829, Dr. Young and Dr. Horton visited the spot and 

 found few or no signs of much examination having been made for 

 the 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 

 em.ployed in digging, blasting, and breaking the blocks which were 

 thought likely to aftbrd 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 

 ihey met witl"u The bottom of this trench, they sounded with iron 



