HIGH-GRADE SILICA MATERIALS ^ IQ 



a little interstitial iron oxide are very sparingly distributed ; feldspar 

 is the chief impurity, and most of it has been more or less kaolin- 

 ized. Certain beds, however, are much less feldspathic (see table i, 

 and figure 15). 



Operating facilities and transportation. Clinton and Franklin 

 counties are served by the New York Central and Hudson River 

 Railroad, the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, the Rutland Railroad, 

 and to a less extent by the Grand Trunk Railroad; Moira, M alone, 

 Mooers and Rouses Point are junction points. No quarries were 

 seen in this area, although quarries are said to have been in opera- 

 tion in the past at Moira, Bangor, Mooers, and along the banks of 

 the Chateaugay and Salmon rivers.^ 



The samples selected were taken from exposures along streams 

 and elsewhere, from 4 to 6 miles from the railroad. There are good 

 state roads in the region, but the secondary roads are very sandy 

 in places, owing to the character of the drift which covers the 

 greater part of the Potsdam in this area. The location of the out- 

 crops would necessitate a haulage of several miles over roads more 

 or less sandy, but not uniformly bad; the distances involved are 

 not great, and provided the material is of any value the question 

 of transportation is not a serious one. 



The chief objections to the rock in Clinton and Franklin counties 

 are its thin-bedded character and the presence of much interbedded 

 impure and unusable rock; considerable stripping and consequent 

 wastage would be necessary to obtain the purer and usable material. 



The outcrops in the Mohawk valley are situated 5 or 6 miles from 

 Johnstown, requiring a motor or wagon haul for that distance; the 

 Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad passes through Johns- 

 town, connecting with the main line of the New York Central and 

 Hudson River Railroad at Fonda, which is situated on the Mohawk 

 river and adjacent to the Barge canal. 



Other outcrops of more or less promising material lie near Yosts 

 Station, on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and 

 convenient likewise to the Mohawk river and Barge canal. 



The Potsdam outliers in the Mohawk valley at the localities men- 

 tioned are much more heavily bedded than the Moira-Bangor rock, 

 but are more inclined to be feldspathic; the rock is variable in 

 quality, but so far as could be judged from an inspection of the 

 outcrops, a large quantity of good rock is available, and should be 

 readily quarried. 



^ Emmons, Ebenezer, Natural History of New York, Geology of the 

 Second District, 1842. 



