MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 221 



for millstones, and at one time also was worked for glass material, 

 the latter having been obtained near EUenville. 



The Poughquag quartzite, which occurs in the Highland region 

 and north of there, contains beds which are practically pure quartz. 

 It is an extremely hard and tough material, owing to its thorough 

 impregnation by secondary silica which has converted the mass into 

 the condition almost of vitreous quartz. By reason of these qualities 

 it should be well adapted for the lining of tube mills and is also 

 probably suitable for chemical and metallurgical uses. 



Vein quartz. Vitreous or vein quartz occurs in many -places in 

 the Adirondacks and in the Highlands, particularly on the margins 

 of granitic intrusions. No very large veins are known, although 

 occasionally they attain workable dimensions. A number of occur- 

 rences near Fort Ann and Port Henry once supplied material for 

 making wood filler which was prepared in a mill at Fort Ann. Some 

 quartz has been shipped to sand-paper manufacturers from this 

 region. The largest output of vein quartz has come from near 

 Bedford, Westchester county, where it is associated with the 

 pegmatite of that locality. The quartz is found in segregated bodies 

 practically free of admixture and also associated with feldspar as 

 a constituent of the pegmatite. The product of the quarries is 

 employed for wood filler and silicate paint. 



SALT 



Salt has a prominent place in the list of New York's mineral 

 products. This position it has maintained for a long time, as salt 

 making was one of the early industries that had much to do with 

 the pioneer settlement and trade development of the interior of 

 the State. 



The importance of the salt industry may be the better appreciated 

 when it is considered that the deposits are widely distributed, 

 occurring within an area which has not yet been definitely delimited 

 but which certainly covers several thousand square miles — con- 

 stituting a resource scarcely to be measured in terms of present 

 day or nearby prospective consumption — and that in many places 

 the deposits are easily reached by wells or shafts located close to 

 some of the main railroad lines or on natural waterways. The 

 situation of the deposits with reference to the market is an important 

 economic factor; they are the most easterly of all those in the 

 country, and thus have a natural advantage in the seaboard trade, 

 as well as in the interior of New England, New York and Pennsyl- 



