536 NEW TOEK STATE MUSEUM 



were the basis of an iron industry that was begun about 1840 

 and continued until 1858. They are situated near and on both 

 sides of Lakes Sandford and Henderson, at the headwaters of the 

 Hudson river, in Newcomb township, Essex county. They lie 

 well within the great dorian area of the Adirondacks, Mt. Marcy 

 being nearly due east eight or ten miles, Mt. Mclntyre six miles 

 northeast and the Indian Pass due north. Santanoni lies west 

 and other minor peaks are near. Crystalline limestone outcrops 

 about five miles southwest on Lake Newcomb. The country 

 rock at most of the ore-bodies is the coarsely crystalline, dark 

 blue labradorite rock or " anorthosite," characteristic of the 

 Adirondacks. At the Millpond opening, where the walls are 

 well exposed, it is perfectly massive and shows none of the crush- 

 ing that is so marked a feature of the usual outcrops. Elsewhere 

 garnets are sometimes met and a very little hypersthene. At 

 the Cheney opening the walls, called " sienite " by Emmons, are 

 a gneissoid gabbro . The greatest ore-body of all is the Sand- 

 ford. This is exposed in a hillside a mile west of Lake Sandford, 

 where an open cut shows a breast of about 20 feet of dense, 

 black magnetite, with no walls apparent. A strong belt of 

 attraction has been traced from this point to and across Lake 

 Sandford. Emmons describes in his Report on the Second Dis- 

 trict, 18 12 (p. 240), several sections across this bed that were 

 exposed by costeaning ditches. They showed a maximum of. 

 over 600 feet of ore and wet in streaks." The trenches have been 

 filled up since then and at present only the open cut referred to 

 above is exposed. The ore contains crystals of labradorite with 

 reaction rims of brown hornblende and biotite between them and 

 the ore itself. The analyses afford from 51 .44 per cent, to 63 .45 

 per cent, iron and 18.70 to 10.91 Si^ 2 - It does not appear that 

 Emmons, in his early explorations, knew that the ore contained 

 titanium, nor that the operators of the furnaces in those early 

 days of iron smelting were aware of its presence . 



Two miles west of Lake Henderson is the Cheney ore-body, 

 said to show 40 feet clear ore without walls appearing. It is 

 somewhat sulphurous, a very exceptional property in the case of 

 titaniferous ores. On both sides of the Adirondack river that 

 connects Lake Sandford and Lake Henderson, and in the bed of 

 the river itself, there are several ore-bodies. The one called the 



