ADIRONDACK MAGNETIC IRON ORES 43 



tion northward of the high ridge separating Lake George and 

 Lake Champlain. It is made up of a greenish slightly gneissoid 

 rock which has been described as containing microperthite, augite, 

 hypersthene, hornblende and quartz, a composition that plainly 

 establishes relationship with the augite syenites. 1 The mountain 

 thus represents without doubt an igneous knob that has been 

 intruded in the surrounding gneisses which are mainly sedimentary. 

 The ore body occurs near the base of the mountain occupying a 

 vertical fissure with a strike n. 70 w. The walls on either side 

 are brecciated, and there has probably been more or less displace- 

 ment though of uncertain extent. Close to the fissure the rock is 

 mashed, altered to a greenish material which seems to be mainly 

 chlorite, and impregnated with hematite. There is every reason 

 for believing that the ore has been introduced by circulation of 

 underground waters subsequent to the formation of the fissure. 

 It is plainly not an altered magnetite band. The hematite is 

 principally a soft amorphous variety, with occasionally some 

 masses of specular; it is mixed with calcite and milky quartz. 

 The deposit as seen from the surface ranges up to 5 feet wide. 

 It has been worked through a drift which enters the hill a short 

 distance above the base. Smock states that a pit was also sunk, 

 but as the workings are full of water this can not now be seen. 

 He further states that 8 feet of ore were encountered. Apparently 

 the vein has been developed quite extensively for it is referred 

 to by Watson 2 who says that 1500 tons had been taken out in the 

 early operations. It was again mined in 1888 and ore shipped to 

 Port Henry. Preparations were under way in 1905 for again 

 reopening it, but after starting an adit at the base of the hill the 

 work was abandoned. 



HAMMONDVILLE MINE GROUP 



The Hammondville mines are in the western part of Crown Point 

 township, Essex co., 13 miles west of Crown Point village on Lake 

 Champlain and 15 miles south of the Mineville district. They 

 occupy a limited area that centers around the former settlement of 

 Hammondville. Though mostly of small size they have furnished 

 in the aggregate nearly 2,000,000 tons of ore (chiefly Bessemer) 

 with an average of about 50 per cent iron. 



1 J. F. Ken? & D. H. Nswlaai. Preliminary Report on the Geology of 

 Washington, Warren and Parts of Essex and Hamilton Counties. N. Y # 

 State Mus. Rep't 51. 1899, 2:512. 



a History of Essex County, p. 385. 



