220 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Cayuga, Wayne, and Monroe counties. West of the Genesee 

 river Prof. Hall reports that it was not seen. There are two 

 beds, generally about 20 feet apart, according to Vanuxem's 

 report on the Clinton group, thin, averaging little more than a 

 foot, and distinguished by more abundant oolitic particles in the 

 lower bed and by the larger grains and concretions in the upper 

 bed. 6 Very little mining has been done, excepting in the towns 

 of Clinton, Oneida county, and Ontario, in Wayne county. The 

 average thickness of the beds in these mines is 30 inches, and 

 one bed only is worked. They lie almost horizontal, dipping 

 slightly to the south; and in the extraction of the ore a part of 

 the overlying shales has to be removed and the roof supported by 

 timbering. 



The ore consists of lenticular-shaped grains, closely aggregated 

 in a firm solid mass, which has to be broken up by blasting and 

 heavy sledging. It is more friable and soft on the outcrop. It 

 is brownish red in color and soils like a paint. The percentage 

 of metallic iron varies less than in the magnetic iron ores and in 

 the brown hematites. The average is 44 to 48 % . The phosphorus 

 is above the Bessemer limit. It is well adapted for making 

 foundry iron and is used for that class of iron mainly. Local 

 furnaces take nearly all the output of the mines. The first lease 

 for digging Clinton ore was given in 1797." 



THE LIMONITES OF DUTCHESS AND COLUMBIA 



COUNTIES 



The ore deposits and mines, as here grouped, are in two prin- 

 cipal ranges and limestone valleys. First, the Fishkill-Clove belt, 

 stretching northeast, from the Highlands of the Hudson, across 

 the towns of Fishkill, East Fishkill, Beekman and Unionvale; 

 second, the north-south valley, traversed by the New York and 

 Harlem railway, from the Highlands across Dutchess county, 

 and to Hillsdale in Columbia county. The limonite, or brown 

 hematite ore, is found in small pockets of irregular shape, and 



a Hall Report on Survey of the Fourth Geological District, Albany, 1843, p. 61. 

 ftVanuxem Report on Survey of the Third Geological District, Albany, 1842, p. 83. 

 cBirkinbine; The iron ores east of the Mississippi River, in Mineral Resource! of 

 the United States for the calendar year 1886, p. 50. 



