30 Bulletin of the New York State Museum. 



general character of the ores is much alike in them. Both Bonanza 

 and Little Joker are owned and worked by Witherbees, Sherman & 

 Company. 



On the north side of the railway, Mine 23 or Welch Shaft and 

 the Brinsmade Shaft are on an ore bed whose dip is to the west. 

 Their depth is 240 feet. This bed is pinched north of the Brinsmade 

 Shaft and is not worked far in that direction. The ore is coarse- 

 crystalline and resembles that of Mine 21. But the relation to the 

 latter is all as yet conjectural. The ores of 23 mine are sold as 

 " chunk " ore for fettling. 



OLD BED, west of the last named, and also north of the railway, 

 is in part, a great open pit, which has fallen in somewhat. It is be- 

 lieved to be a separate ore-body, and not connected with 21 

 mine ; on the west there may be an ore connection with that of the 

 Miller Pit. A north and south property line crosses the pit. 



MILLER PIT is an extensive mine west of the Old Bed and Mine 

 21, stretching 500 to 600 feet south-west of the railway. It is on the 

 property of Witherbees, Sherman & Company, but is not in operation. 



The equipments of the Port Henry mines are extensive and 

 first class. The Port Henry Iron Ore Company has one central sta- 

 tion whence all the motive power for hoisting and pumping, and com- 

 pressed air are distributed to the several mines. There are three 

 large hoisting engines, one pumping engine, one shop engine, four 

 duplex air compressors, three lift pumps, sixteen steam pumps, air 

 drills, etc., etc. 



Witherbees, Sherman & Company have of necessity separate 

 plants at New Bed, and on Barton Hill. They use four 150-horse- 

 power, one 125-H. P., two 100-H. P., two 75-H. P., and two 50-H. 

 P. engines, forty pumps, air compressors, etc. Electric lights are 

 used in all of these mines. The hoisting is all done in mine cars, 

 which dump the ore on platforms, at top of slopes, where it is sorted 

 and loaded into the company's cars, and which run thence to the 

 lake at Port Henry. 



Owing to the extraordinaiy thickness of the beds in these 

 mines, the ore can be broken clown in huge blocks, and by great 

 blasts ; and the cost of mining is thus reduced. The relatively small 

 proportion of dead work and the dryness of the mines, also assist in 

 lowering the expenses. The richness of the ore is another important 

 favoring element, enabling these companies to produce a large amount 



