82 Geological Survey of the State of Neiv York. 



The ore " is found in wedge-form masses, which thin out en- 

 tirely in the downward direction, and the quantity varying from 

 120 tons to a mass of 500 lbs., which was moveable with a bar, 

 in 'place^'' — its connexion with the parent rock having been de- 

 stroyed by decomposition. 



The most abundant variety of specular ore, "occurs of a deep 

 red color, and in red powder, or bright shining scales, which by 

 slight pressure become a red powder." Some of the deposits 

 " are apparently inexhaustible, and others are merely a mass of 

 red earth in which there are a few lumps of hard ore." " Their 

 position is confined to the upper portion of the primary strata, and 

 lower layers of the Potsdam sandstone. It is rather remarkable 

 that this rock, so generally connected with this deep red ore, is 

 not as highly colored throughout as it is in some places, although 

 generally it is white, or pale red, with a tinge of brown or yel- 

 low." 



From the observations made by Prof. Emmons in some of these 

 mines, he suggests that the ore which appears in some cases as 

 " a bed lying between the primitive rocks, and the oldest of the 

 sandstones," may be "in veins, being the upward extension into 

 the sandstone from the primary mass." In support of this view, 

 he mentions the following facts connected with the occurrence of 

 this ore : " 1. There are numerous places where this ore has no 

 other connexion than with the primary. 2. There are strong 

 reasons to suppose that at these localities the sandstone has been 

 removed, and that they were formerly in the same geological re- 

 lations as the range in which the Parish and Kearney beds 

 are now found. There are every where abraded surfaces and 

 fractured strata, and it appears that the sandstone was once con- 

 tinuous over wider areas than it now occupies, as we find its re- 

 mains as far east as the specular iron is known to occur. Accord- 

 ing to this view the sandstone, together with the red ore, has been 

 removed, and according to well known facts, the whole must 

 have been carried south ; and what do we find in that direction ? 

 Not only beds of red oxide of iron, mixed it is true with argilla- 

 ceous matter, but also silicious rocks, the red sandstone, and the 

 gray band of Prof. Eaton, &c., in connexion with this argilla- 

 ceous oxide."* 



* See Vol. XXXIX, pp. 104, 105, Am. Journal. 



