r82 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



THE SACAXDAG^ MINING AND MILLING CO. AND 

 THE " SUTPHEN PKOCESS " 



BY J. N. NEYIUS 



Public attention has so frequently been called to the claims of 

 persons who have reported the finding of gold in paying quantities 

 in the vast Quaternary sand plain of Saratoga, Warren and Essex 

 counties, that it was deemed advisable for the museum to investi- 

 gate some of the many localities in which the gold was said to 

 occur. Accordingly a visit was made to the mine and mill of the 

 Sacandaga mining and milling co., which are located on the north 

 bank of the Sacandaga river about a mile and a half west of the 

 village of Hadley, Saratoga co. The officers of the company 

 courteously permitted an examination of their property to be made 

 and explained their process. 



This company has prospected the sands of that part of the state 

 extensively. Its representatives affirm that their investigations 

 prove that the sand, throughout almost the entire region, carries 

 gold, in quantities varying from mere traces at some localities to 

 several dollars' worth a ton at other places ; that the standard fire 

 assay generally fails to reveal the gold because it does not exist as 

 native gold, but is thought to be combined with bromin as a 

 bromid, and the bromin prevents the gold from forming a button 

 when assayed ; and that the bromid of gold exists throughout the 

 interiors of the quartz particles of the sand. 



The history of the discovery of gold in the New York sands is 

 said, by Alfred E. Copp of Buffalo, to be as follows. 



More than 15 years ago William T. Eullis, of Glens Falls, de- 

 clared that he had discovered gold in the sand of that region, and 

 he spent the remainder of his life endeavoring to find a process to 

 extract it on a commercial scale. He claimed that the fire assay was 

 unreliable in its results and said that he secured fair results by 

 using a barrel amalgamator containing cobblestones, and amalgamat 

 ing in the presence of water. 



About the same time Dr C. P. Bellows, a dentist of Gloversville, 

 collected a sample of black sand from a neighboring stream and 



