The Clinton or Fossil Ores. 51 



STERLING-, Cayuga County. — The Clinton ore bed has been 

 opened about 100 rods west of the E. W. & O. R. R. and north of 

 the Southern Central line, and worked by the Furnaceville Company 

 of Ontario county. The ore is found covered more deeply as the 

 quarrying moves southward, in the line of dip. There are two ore 

 beds " or tiers," each about 18 inches thick. In the lower one the 

 ore is mixed with some "flint." 



WOLCOTT MINE, Wolcott, Wayne County. — Fossil ore was 

 formerly mined in this town for the supply of the Wolcott furnace, 

 six miles west of the mine. The furnace went down years ago, and 

 the mine was then closed. 



The Clinton ore crosses the towns of Sodus and Williamson, west 

 of Wolcott ; and it was dug near the mouth of Salmon creek in the 

 first named town for the supply of the Sodus furnace. The locality 

 has been abandoned for many years. 



ONTARIO MINES, Ontario, Wayne County. — The outcrop of 

 the oolitic ore of the Clinton formation stretches across the town of 

 Ontario, in a nearly due east-west course and clipping southward at 

 the rate of ten inches in 100 feet. The country is level and the 

 workings reach the profitable limit for the removal of the overlying 

 rock and earth (10-12 feet) within comparatively short distances. 



The Bennet estate owns the easternmost outcrop and mine, on the 

 east of the Ontario station and furnace road. It has lain idle nearly 

 ten years. The mines west of the Bennet property are opened on a 

 line about one-half mile north of and parallel to the R. W. 

 & O. R. R. 



At present the Jones & Bean farms are producing ore : the Hurley, 

 Le Frois and Bundy openings are not worked. All are controlled 

 by the Furnaceville Company, Samuel Raymore, manager. On the 

 Bean farm the ore is covered by drift earth and a greenish-grey 

 shale, varying up to 12 feet in thickness. The ore bed is twenty 

 to twenty-two inches thick, and has a slightly wavy upper surface. 

 Under it there is greenish shale, which falls to pieces on exposure 

 to the air. 



The Jones mine adjoins the above, on the west, and in one contin- 

 uous opening. Near the outcrop the covering is earth with lumps of 

 ore in it ; south, the rock appears, first in thin layers, increasing to six 

 and eight feet thick at the present face of working. The lumps of 



