250 JVotice of Crystallized Steatite, ^c, 



the ore bed is rather singular. It lies at *he southern side of 

 a hill, which is connected with a high mountain running in 

 a northerly direction. This mountain has been burnt over 

 until the trees and smaller vegetables for a considerable 

 distance from the summit have been entirely destroyed, 

 and it appears, when viewed from the village of Benning- 

 ton as a huge mass of Avhite limestone or of quartz. Speci- 

 mens of the rock were shown me at the furnace. They 

 were magnesian limestone. The hill, which forms the 

 southern part of this mountain, and at whose foot runs a 

 small river, rising in the mountains still farther east, does not 

 exhibit any rock near the mine. The valley on both sides 

 of the river is covered w^ith rounded masses of granular 

 quartz. The bed of ore lies in the side of this hill, in the 

 loose sandy soil or earth which prevails here. Small roun- 

 ded masses of the quartz are found in the earth over the 

 mine. The bed of iron, where the ore has been dug, is ele- 

 vated but a few feet above the level of the river. The hill 

 rises pretty rapidly sixty or eighty feet, but the bed of ore 

 does not rise as much, so that at the distance of about thirty 

 or forty feet from the southern part of the bed which has 

 been explored, the iron ore is about fifty feet under the sur- 

 face of the hill. 



7'he ore of manganese was discovered a little lower 

 down than the iron, and is found to ascend, as the bed is ex:- 

 plored, in the same manner as the iron ore. It is always 

 separated from the iron ore by an earthy portion, often very 

 thin, and were there not other distinguishing characters, is 

 not liable to be confounded with the ores of iron. 



The bed has been explored for six or eight rods in width, 

 and the iron ore is known to extend along the lower part of 

 the hill and but a foot below the surface, more than twenty 

 rods in width. Its extent up the hill and its depth are un= 

 known; but the ore seems to be inexhaustible. Both kinds 

 of ore are dug with great ease, and a stream of water is 

 turned from the hill into the mine, for the purpose of work- 

 ing the ore. The late proprietor of the ore-bed and furnace, 

 and the proprietor of the manganese, Mr. Trenner, very po- 

 litely accompanied me in my visit to the place, and afforded 

 me every facility in the examination, while he augmented 

 the pleasure of the visit by his hospitality and readiness to 

 answer all the questions I wished to ask. 



