4^ NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The main versus the "bastard" bed. Graphite men state 

 that the schist mined in this locality occurs as two distinct beds. 

 The one opened in the American mine is probably the lower one, 

 which here is the thicker. The upper one is known as the " bastard 

 vein/' 1 Garnet-sillimanite rock (a portion of the Hague gneiss) 

 separates them. It is the common belief that as the Faxon line 

 is approached the main bed becomes thinner, while the " bastard " 

 stratum increases in thickness and constitutes the ore on that 

 property. Bastin suggests such a possibility and says : 2 "It is 

 probable that the ore on the Faxon property ... is the con- 

 tinuation of one or the other of the beds worked by the American 

 Graphite Company . . . though their continuity has not been 

 certainly traced." 



The writer was not afforded an opportunity to see this for him- 

 self, although it is very reasonable in view of the known stratigraphy 

 to assume that the beds are continuous. Which of the two beds is 

 the important Faxon ore is not proved, but from the diamond drill 

 records it appears likely that it is the upper bed. 



On the geologic map two beds are represented; when one is thin 

 the other is thick. 



The summer pit. To the east of the outcrop of the main bed of 

 the American Graphite Company is a northeast and southwest pit 

 about 600 feet in length following a bed of the graphitic schist. 

 The ore here strikes N 50 E and dips 20 to the southeast, and is 

 parallel to the other outcrop. The pit is " shallow and operated 

 during the summer season . . . The thickness of the bed at 

 the mouth of the pit is from 6 to 10 feet. . . . This pit was 

 opened about 1890. The ore is similar to " 3 that in the main mine. 



The relation between the two outcrops has long been in dispute. 

 Kemp and Newland 4 suggest that the two beds of the graphitic 

 schist are separated by a fault causing a repetition of the beds. 

 That such actually is the case was demonstrated by the rocks freshly 

 exposed along the right of way of the new state road. There is a 

 sudden change from the Swede Pond quartzite to the Faxon lime- 

 stone. Exposures of the former show crushing by the slipping of 

 the two blocks on each other. Specimens were secured that exhibit 

 brecciated fragments recemented by the infiltration of silica. This 



1 The use of the term " vein " is likewise incorrect when applied to bedded 

 deposits. 



2 Bastin, E. S., Mineral Resources, U. S. G. S. 1908, 2:725. 



3 Bastin, E. S., loc. cit. p. 724. 



4 N. Y. State Mus., 51st Ann. Rep't, 2, fig. 4, 1897, and the Mineral Industry 

 for 1898, p. 383. 



