40 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the Caledonia and Old Sterling deposits are located, about a mile 

 from the latter. It was first worked in 1858. 



The ore is an earthy hematite, occurring within graphitic schist. 

 There is no limestone exposed in the workings and this rock does 

 not appear to be present in the immediate vicinity. The deposits 

 occupy zones of replacement following the bedding planes of the 

 .schist. The dip is to the northwest in an opposite direction to that 

 at the Caledonia mine. The workings have reached a depth of 160 

 feet on the dip, and range from 10 to 40 feet wide. 



Ore has been mined in the past from several pits between the Old 

 Sterling and Dickson mines. There are good opportunities for 

 exploration in the vicinity, as well as in the interval between the 

 Old Sterling and the Caledonia mines. All of the deposits practically 

 that are known have been located by surface outcrops. Their aggre- 

 gate extent is small compared with the body of the schist, and it is 

 not at all improbable that ore bodies may be found beneath the 

 drift-covered areas. Tests with the dip needle show that the ore 

 bodies have no appreciable magnetic properties, so that exploration 

 would have to be carried on by costeaning or drilling. The thick- 

 ness of the drift, judging from sections exposed in the district, is 

 nowhere very great, probably less than 50 feet in most places. 



I 

 The Clinton hematite 



BY C. A. HARTNAGEL 



The Clinton ores occur as beds in the Clinton formation and 

 extend for a distance of about 120 miles, from Herkimer county as 

 far west as Monroe county. In the eastern section there are present 

 two and some times three beds of ore. The lower oolitic bed is 

 about 8 inches thick and is not at present worked, though in charac- 

 ter it is very similar to the oolitic bed occurring 2 feet higher, 

 which is the only one of the three beds now exploited. The lower 

 politic bed is quite local in distribution and is definitely known only 

 on the property of the Franklin Iron Manufacturing Co. The upper 

 bed, locally known as " red flux," is found 24 feet higher. This bed 

 is 5 feet thick and is strictly a fossil ore, consisting largely of bryo- 

 zoan fragments and lacking oolites which are so characteristic of 

 the lower beds. The analysis of the upper bed gives about 30^ 

 iron, which is too low to be profitably employed at present. 



In the western section only one bed of ore is found. It here 

 combines the character of the '' red flux " and oolitic beds of the east- 



