26 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



It is not out of place perhaps to call attention here to the revival 

 of gold-mining ventures, which it was thought had run their course 

 and ceased to be of general interest after the record of universal 

 failure that attended such enterprises in former years. Many- 

 wrecks of mine and milling plants for the extraction of gold, on which 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended, are scattered over 

 the Adirondacks. So far as can be learned from diligent inquiry, 

 supplemented by the results of actual tests upon the materials 

 exploited, there has never been any recovery of gold whatsoever 

 by these plants. Yet the claims have been published that the 

 Adirondack sands will yield $4 or $5 and even up to $50 in gold when 

 treated by some special process. The process, in fact, which is 

 usually surrounded by more or less secrecy and mystery, seems to 

 be the main element of consideration in the capitalization of such 

 enterprises; the deposits upon which the process is employed are 

 simply the ordinary glacial sands that cover most of the Adirondack 

 valleys and that represent the detritus of the crystalline rocks of 

 that region — granite, gneiss, gabbro, anorthosite etc. Careful 

 assays, using large samples of the sands for the purpose, fail to 

 disclose anything more than the merest trace of gold or silver. The 

 only new feature that has been introduced in the later promotions 

 is the intimation that platinimi accompanies the other precious 

 metals. However opportune the suggestion may be in view of the 

 enormous accretion in value of platinum in the last two or three 

 years, it hardly changes the situation with regard to the value of 

 the deposits. The attempts to awaken public interest in these 

 ill-founded ventures are deprecated as working • an injury upon 

 legitimate enterprise, and it will be the aim of this office, as in the 

 past, to discourage their inception as a matter of policy. 



Silica for glass and refractories. The inquiries received by the 

 office in regard to the possibility of securing supplies of high-grade 

 silica rock from local deposits suggested an investigation of these' 

 resources. The demand for silica materials has been largely aug- 

 mented through its employment in the manufacture of such products 

 as ferro-silicon, optical glass and refractory linings for metallurgical 

 furnaces. The investigation was undertaken by R. J. Colony of 

 Coliimbia University, who devoted a part of the summer to the 

 necessary field work and supplemented this with laboratory studies 

 in New York. The materials investigated for the purpose were the 

 Poughquag quartzite of Dutchess and Westchester counties, the 

 Shawangunk conglomerate that forms the crest of that mountain 



