38 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Regular operations began in 191 5, but last year was the first in which 

 they were continuous for the twelvemonth. ■ Notable gains were 

 reported also by the iron mines. 



The pyrite deposits. Supplementing the mention already made 

 of the investigation of pyrite which was directed particularly to the 

 commercial possibilities of the deposits, and the work done by 

 Dr A. F. Buddington in the more promising of the known occur- 

 rences in the western Adirondack region, it may be added that the 

 geology of the ores and the problems presented by their gneiss had 

 been studied previously by Prof. C. H. Smyth, jr, whose paper 

 appeared in the issue of the Report of the Director of the New York 

 State Museum for 1912. The present investigations showed that 

 the more important deposits occur in groups and that these are 

 arranged in long, narrow bands that follow the general structural 

 trend, that is, have a northeasterly strike. Seven such belts are 

 recognized, of which the more important ores (five in number) form 

 a single zone 40 miles long and 3 to 4 miles wide that reaches from 

 the vicinity of Antwerp and Theresa on the southwest to Pyrites 

 near Canton on the northeast. The individual ore-bands consist 

 of disseminations, bunches and veinlets of pyrite so as to give a 

 more or less uniform content of the mineral, in a gangue of which 

 chlorite is a distinctive ingredient. The bands and lenses attain a 

 width up to 40 or 50 feet but usually are around 10 to 20 feet. They 

 have marked persistence on the surface, having been followed for 

 distances of 1500 to 2600 feet in individual workings and so far as 

 explored show a similar continuity in depth. Only a few of the 

 bands have been actually exploited; those at Stellaville, Pyrites and 

 the Cole mine near Gouverneur have yielded most of the ore that 

 has been mined in the past. There are resources still available 

 undoubtedly to afford an output four or five times as large as the 

 current supply. Since the report was issued, preparations have 

 been in progress to extend the production. The need for increasing 

 the American supplies of the mineral has become especially urgent 

 with the practical cessation of imports of the Spanish and 

 Canadian ores. 



Zinc-pyrite ores. In the Edwards district, St Lawrence county, 

 long associated with the fibrous talc industry, occur bodies of admixed 

 zinc blende and pyrite which lately have come into prominence. 

 They have quite different features than the pyrite ores just described, 

 consisting of lenses, bands and disseminations of the two sulphides 

 in dolomitic limestone. They also are smaller in size, the width not 

 exceeding 15 feet as a maximum in the developed and exposed 



