GEOLOGY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY 125 



it will not do to lay much emphasis on its possible bearing on the 

 question of the topographic character of the surface on which the- 

 paleozoic rocks were deposited. 



ECONOMIC GEOLOGY 



The mineral deposits of the county which have been, are now, 

 or are ever likely to be of any economic value are the magnetic 

 iron ores, the Potsdam sandstone and perhaps some of the Pre- 

 cambrian rocks also as a source of building stone, the latter rocks 

 for road metal, and the limestones as a source of lime. There is 

 a possibility that brick clays may occur, though none have been 

 noted. From the standpoint of the present all these may be dis- 

 missed in a few words. 



Iron ore. There are a great number of old ore pits in Franklin 

 county, specially in Belmont, Duane and Franklin townships. 

 Emmons mentions ore worked near Saranac, in Santa Clara (town- 

 ship no. 11), several localities around Duane Center, and an open- 

 ing 4 miles west of Malone (probably on Cornish hill). 1 That 

 represented the condition of the industry up to 1840, but in the 

 succeeding quarter of a century many more openings were made. 

 Emmons also notes that the ore is in different association from 

 most of the Essex and Clinton county ore, occurring in black am- 

 phibolite gneiss rather in the red, orthoclase gneiss full of titanite, 

 which is the usual rock in those counties. Emmons's generaliza- 

 tion also holds good for the deposits opened since his report was 

 published. 



None of these deposits were of very large size, none of them 

 have been worked this many a year, and there is no prospect that 

 any of them can be worked with profit in the immediate future. 

 It is only the unusually large and rich deposits, such as those at 

 Mineville and Lyon mountain, that can be worked with profit 

 under present conditions of the iron industry; and it is only the 

 recent rise in prices which has permitted work to be resumed at 

 Lyon mountain, the mines having been shut down for several years^ 

 previous to 1898. 



1 Emmons, Ebenezer. Geology of New York, pt 2, p. 326-31. 



