Discovery of the Vauquelinite, a rare ore of Chromium, in 

 the United States. By J. Torrey. 



Read April 27, 1835. 



About five years ago some specimens of lead ores were pre- 

 sented to me for examination by Professor Moore of Columbia 

 College. They were taken from a mine near the town of 

 Singsing, in the state of New- York, about one mile south of 

 the State Prison. The mine had been wrought for silver 

 nearly as long ago as the period of the American revolution, 

 and has occasionally been opened since that time. In 1827 

 a company was formed for the purpose of working it, under 

 the impression that it contained a rich vein of silver. In 

 Cleaveland's mineralogy (ed. 2, p. 536) native silver is said 

 (on the authority of Col. Gibbs) to occur at Singsing, in a 

 very small vein. Mr. F. Cozzens obtained a specimen of the 

 native metal in that locality in the year 1825. The company 

 just alluded to, had the old shaft cleared out, and also made, I 

 believe, a horizontal opening communicating with the shaft, 

 from the side of the hill. A few barrels of ore were taken up, 

 and the enterprize abandoned. The specimens that I exam- 

 ined consisted of common galena, associated with copper 

 pyrites, crystallised carbonate of lead, malachite, and an 

 ochery looking substance. The carbonate of lead was mostly in 

 small prismatic crystals which had become blackened through- 

 out, probably by the sulphuretted hydrogen disengaged from 

 the decomposing pyrites, but they still retained their high ada- 

 mantine lustre. Most of the lumps of ore, contained much of 

 the ochery substance, which I found consisted of clay, oxide 



