100 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Production of Arnold hill mines. In round figures the output 

 of the mines on Arnold hill may be placed at 600,000 tons. Up 

 to 1864 there had been taken out about 150,000 tons and it is 

 estimated that 400,000 tons were mined in subsequent opera- 

 tions previous to the reopening of the property by the Arnold 

 Mining Co. 



Palmer hill mines 



These mines form a single group. They are situated on an ore 

 body which traverses the hill just below the summit in a north- 

 east-southwest direction and has been explored for nearly half a 

 mile on the outcrop. The strike brings them nearly in line with 

 the Jackson hill deposits, a mile distant to the northeast. The 

 several pits that have been used for ore extraction in years past 

 include the Elliot and White Flint on the western side, the Big, 

 Summit and Lundrigan pits in the central portion and the Little 

 pit and Lot 29 on the east. 



The period of active operations began about 1825 and lasted 

 till 1890. The property was held as an undivided interest by the 

 J. & J. Rogers Co., and the Peru Steel & Iron Co., who converted 

 the ore into charcoal blooms at their forges at Ausable Forks, 

 Black Brook, Jay and Clintonville. It is worthy of note that a 

 separator in which magnets were employed for removing the mag- 

 netite in the crude ore was erected on Palmer hill in 1836, one of 

 the first experiments with this process that has been recorded. 

 Evidently the attempt was not wholly successful, as the process 

 was later superseded by gravity methods. 



Geology. The ore body consists of a band or zone impregnated 

 with magnetite. It is on the whole leaner than the Arnold hill 

 deposits owing to the mingling of the magnetite with the minerals 

 of the adjacent walls. The latter are also not so sharply defined. 

 The magnetite is distributed more or less evenly throughout the 

 mass, or gathered into bodies that are relatively rich. In mining 

 the higher grade ore was specially sought for and was followed in 

 preference to the excavation of the whole deposit. 



The rock on Palmer hill derives special interest from a petro- 

 graphic standpoint owing to the occurrence of fluorite. This 

 mineral is seemingly an original constituent. It forms irregular 

 grains of about equal size with the feldspar and quartz and inter- 

 crystallized with them. Where most abundant it constitutes from 

 25 to 50 per cent of the rock. It is particularly in evidence in the 

 walls of the Big pit and in a belt which can be traced north from 



