86 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tals of magnetite, mined about 1887-88. A total of 40,000 tons 

 from one chamber averaged 68.6 per cent and carload lots ran 72 

 per cent, being almost chemically pure magnetite. 



Beyond the Lovers Hole is a stretch not much mined as yet, 

 and then as the outcrop swerves with the contours to the north- 

 west, there are three pits, the South, the North and the Orchard. 

 The rock dumps are large at this end, indicating leaner ore. Beyond 

 the Orchard pit, there is an interval with no mines, and mostly 

 with concealed bed rock, for half a mile. Within this distance 

 there is a drop of 150 feet in the altitude and then two groups of 

 mines, now for some years unworked, are found. These are the 

 Fisher hill mines belonging to the Port Henry Iron Ore Co., and 

 the Burt lot, of Witherbee, Sherman & Co. The ores are rather 

 lean but are of Bessemer grade. 



The pits are distributed across a horizontal stretch of 100 feet 

 at Fisher hill and 250 to 300 feet at the Burt lot. They dip about 

 2 5 westward, and are therefore something like 40 feet apart 

 vertically at the former and 115 feet at the latter. There are no 

 marked horizons of ore within these limits. At Fisher hill the 

 workings are 600 or 700 feet down on the incline, and at the Burt 

 lot, 300 or 400. The railroad has been pulled up for 10 years past 

 and the mines have been allowed to fill with water. 



It is quite possible that the Fisher hill and Burt lot ores are a 

 reappearance of the Barton hill bed after a lean interval, and 

 that they mark a northerly continuation of the latter. It is very 

 natural to infer these belts and especially are we prone to do so 

 in so far as the time-honored sedimentary conceptions of origin 

 influence us. The northern pits are double to a degree not shown 

 by the southern, and if we are influenced by the igneous views, 

 we may not feel justified in inferring the identity without proof of 

 the connection. The wall rocks are practically identical and the 

 general dip and axial trend of the pods correspond. 



To the east of Fisher hill and a half mile away upon the eastern 

 slope of a different hill is another great lens or pod now known 

 as the Smith mine, and actively worked by Witherbee, Sherman 

 & Co., through the Cook shaft. This pod was discovered by the 

 needle. It does not outcrop. It dips west and pitches south like 

 the others and furnishes a non-Bessemer ore much like Old Bed, 

 but lower in phosphorus. A vertical shaft taps the upper end of 

 the pod and then from the foot the two skip ways fork and proceed 

 southwest, one going for about 1000 feet. The ore varies from 

 20 to 40 feet thick, and at the south drops over 600 feet below its 



