260 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



graphite include the smaller and more impure flake, but no regular 

 scale of prices can be given. The commercial grades of the 

 domestic crystalline graphite show wide variations in respect to 

 purity, the best carrying 90 to 95 per cent carbon. 



There is some doubt as to the ability of Ceylon to meet the 

 increasing demands for its product. According to expert testimony 

 the mines on the island are worked at about their full capacity 

 under the present system of operations, which is quite primitive. 

 This seems to be borne out by the record of exports, which have 

 shown no decided tendency toward expansion during the last 

 decade. On the other hand, Madagascar is likely to forge ahead 

 and become a very important factor in the world's markets, judg- 

 ing from the progress it has made within the last year or two. 

 The industry there was started less than 10 years ago, and the 

 product for the current season promises to reach 40,000,000 pounds, 

 according to a recent article in " The Engineering and Mining 

 Journal," 1 which is about two-thirds of the average quota of Ceylon. 



The active general market conditions were reflected in the year's 

 developments in the local mining industry which reported a good 

 gain in the output, with an outlook for a still further enlargement 

 of the production during the current season. This will undoubtedly 

 follow, inasmuch as two new companies have already started pro- 

 ductive operations and should make a considerable increment to 

 the previous year's total. The list of producers for 1916 included 

 the American mine of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Co. at Graphite, 

 the Graphite Products Corporation of Saratoga Springs, and the 

 Popes Mills Graphite Co. of Popes Mills, St Lawrence county. 

 The recent mining developments in the Adirondack region are 

 covered in the following notes. 



American mine. This is the oldest of the Adirondack mines now 

 active, having been continuously in operation for about 40 years, 

 and probably is the most productive mine of its kind in the country. 

 It is based on layers of graphitic quartzite, interbedded with Gren- 

 ville limestones and garnet-sillmanitc gneiss, that outcrop some 6 

 miles west of Hague on Lake George. There are two principal 

 deposits, which outcrop with an interval of a few hundred feet 

 between but follow the same northeasterly course and southeasterly 

 dip. The two are probably the broken faulted members of one 

 series, inasmuch as both are characterized by similar geological rela- 

 tions. Most of the mining hitherto has been done in the north- 



ijuly 7, 1 91 7. 



