80 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



mines in America, and has been in operation many years. It pro- 

 duces two to three milHon pounds a year. 



Several smaller mines have been operated from time to time in 

 Essex, Warren and Saratoga counties. 



Garnet mines. Since 1882, garnet for abrasive purposes has been 

 mined in northwestern Warren county. It is the common red garnet 

 used to manufacture garnet paper and cloth instead of ordinary 

 quartz sandpaper. The oldest working is the Rogers mine on Gore 

 mountain where the numerous garnets are from an inch to a foot 

 or more in diameter, embedded in a gray rock. The work is all 

 done by hand. 



The North River Garnet Company has a large mine in operation 

 on Thirteenth lake. There the garnets are smaller but the produc- 

 tion larger. The rock containing them is crushed, and the crushed 

 garnet is removed by machinery. 



The total output of the garnet mines is several thousand tons a 

 year. 



Stone quarries. Building stones of excellent quality are exceed- 

 ingly abundant in the Adirondacks. Whole mountains are commonly 

 made up of such materials, especially granite, syenite and anortho- 

 site. Because of lack of transportation facilities and distance from 

 markets, these stones have been quarried at very few localities 

 except for local use. Some of the principal stone quarries are as 

 follows : granite, syenite and anorthosite near Ausable Forks ; anor- 

 thosite near Keeseville ; and granite near Dannemora. Considerable 

 shipments are made from these places. 



Green marble (so-called verde antique) of Grenville age was for- 

 merly quarried near Thurman, Warren county, and in the vicinity 

 of Port Henry, Essex county. 



Forests and Lumbering 



Much of the Adirondack region is heavily wooded, though very 

 little of the virgin forest now remains. " By far the greater part 

 of the forest is of deciduous growth, about 20 per cent only of the 

 trees being conifers. Of the deciduous trees, the most common 

 species are the maple, birch and beech, with their varieties. Next in 

 the order of quantity, come the poplar, ash, cherry, ironwood, bass- 

 wood, willow, elm, red oak, butternut, sycamore and chestnut. The 

 smaller species of trees or shrubs are represented by the mountain 

 ash, alder, mountain maple, elder, striped, dogwood, shadbush, 

 sumach and ' witch-hopple.' The chestnut is very rare throughout 

 the Adirondack plateau ; although growing close to the foot of the 



