Hematites of Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties. 47 



The Caledonia mine has two shafts. At the south-west shaft (No. 

 1) explorations with the diamond drill have discovered a second bed, 

 47 feet below the bottom of the shaft, of a rich, soft hematite, 33 feet 

 thick, and resting on a white, graphitic, crystalline limestone. Shaft 

 No. 2 is north-east of No. 1 and is vertical, 98 feet in sandstone, 

 overlying the ore. The diamond drill borings at this shaft in 1886 

 went through 59 feet of ore ; then in serpentine and mixed ore. The 

 old Caledonia mine is near the foot of the hill, several rods north of 

 shaft No. 2. It is full of water. Near it a new opening in the side 

 hill exposes the ore in two beds with sandstone between them. The 

 dip in the Caledonia mine varies somewhat, but is, in general, 

 quite flat. 



The Kearney mine consists of a large open pit and extensive 

 underground workings on the hill north of the Caledonia. The ore 

 bed dips to south-east and east, under sandstone strata (Potsdam). 

 Near the surface and at the outcrop the cap of sandstone was replaced 

 by earth and the ore quarried out in an open pit, to a depth of nearly 

 100 feet. A skip road runs down the west side of the pit into the 

 mine. In this mine the ore occurs associated with the serpentine in 

 large irregular-shaped bodies, somewhat as in the Old Sterling mine. 

 The foot wall has not been reached. The ore of the Caledonia mine 

 approximates to a true, specular ore in its color, lustre and texture ; 

 that of the Kearney is of a deep red color and more nearly an 

 amorphous mass. The average percentage of metallic iron in the 

 ore shipped from these mines is 52 to 53 ; the phosphorus is 0.2 per 

 cent. The mining plant consists of hoisting and pumping engines, 

 located between the Kearney and Caledonia No. 1 shaft, and work- 

 ing them, and another at Caledonia No. 2. Branch railroads connect 

 all with the main line of the Home, Watertown and Ogdensburg 

 railroad, which is about a quarter of a mile east of the mines. 



Ore was discovered in the Caledonia outcrop in 1812; the Kearney 

 bed was opened in 1825, the Keene in 1837.* 



The company employs from 90 to 200 men, and sells a large 

 amount of ore yearly to furnaces on the Hudson river, in the Lehigh 

 and Schuylkill regions in Pennsylvania and some to Ohio. These 

 mines were first opened and worked by Geo. Parish about sixty years 

 ago, and were known as the Parish mine.f They were purchased in 

 1865 by the Eossie Iron Works, and have been worked steadily since 



* Hough's history of St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties, Albany, 1853, pp. 450- 

 51 and 683. 

 t Emmons: Geology of Second Geological District, Albany, 1842, pp. !»3-00. 



