534 NEW YOKK STATE MUSEUM 



ville and Little River. Future explorations will, doubtless, 

 discover many iron-ore beds, and result in the devolopment of other 

 mining centers in what now appears as barren ore territory. The 

 construction of additional railways, affording facilities for reach- 

 ing the markets, will do much to open and develop new mines. 



The titaniferous nature of the magnetites, which have been 

 found in the Labrador series, as for example, at Splitrock, in 

 Westport, and at Adirondack, in the town of Newcomb, Essex 

 county, has retarded mining in the localities where they occur. 



The difficulty and expense of reducing the ores containing con- 

 siderable titanium, and the failures in the way of practically 

 separating the titanic minerals from the magnetite, have shut 

 them out of the iron ore market, and the mines having such ores 

 only have been idle for years. That all the magnetic iron ore 

 occurring in this geological horizon is alike titaniferous does not 

 appear to be proven by the comparatively few ores analyzed from 

 limited areas; and there is hope that ores sufficiently low in 

 titanium for successful working may be found.* 



The strike or course of the iron ore beds in so large a district is 

 affected by all the local variations in the positions of the inclosing 

 strata. In general, the direction is northeast and southwest. 

 The dip is also at all angles, varying from a horizontal to a vertical 

 Much further study of the geological structure is needed to 

 explain the features which the mines have exposed to view. The 

 immense deposits at Port Henry mines, the many separate beds 

 of the Crown Point mines, the dikes and faults at Palmer Hill, the 

 parellel shoots of the Arnold Hill mine, the bends and faults at 

 Chateaugay are interesting features for study. 



The magnetite, as it occurs in the Adirondack region, varies 

 much in the degree of crystallization, in texture and color. In 

 the Port Henry mines it is, as a rule, rather coarsely crystalline 

 and lustrous black. At Palmer Hill and at Arnold Hill martite 

 a hematite crystallizing as magnetite, appears to replace the latter 

 mineral. The titaniferous ores are noted for their hardness, dull 

 black fracture surfaces and general fineness of grain. In the 

 nature of the associated minerals also, there is much variation. 

 The more commonly occurring rock constituents are found 

 everywhere. Apatite, also, is a common associate, as in some 



* 4r. James McNaughton of Albany, one of the owners of the Mclntye tract, reports CSept., 

 1895) that he has succeeded in smelting the titaniferous ores hitherto regarded as useless. 



