IRON ORES OF NEW YORK 



535 



of the ore at the Port Henry mines. In general, the iron ores of 

 this region average high in the percentage of metallic iron, 

 especially the non-Bessemer ores ; and on account of their rich- 

 ness, the Port Henry magnetites are widely known and esteemed. 

 Bessemer ores are obtained in quantity at Crown Point, in the 

 western range at Mineville (Port Henry), at Chateaugay, and at 

 other localities, given in the notes of mines, further on in this 

 report. 



The beginnings of iron-ore mining in the Lake Champlain 

 valley were early in the present century. Some of the forges 

 were in operation in 180 L and 1802, and they were run upon the 

 ores in their vicinity.- But the output was small, in the aggre- 

 gate a few thousands of tons. The rapid increase was after 1840. 

 In 1868 the town of Moriah, Essex county, produced 230,000 tons. 

 The tenth census reported 742,865 tons from all of the mines in the 

 Adirondack region. In 1> S 88 the output was 182,000 gross tons, 

 of which 418,< >0C tons came from the Port Henry mines. In the 

 course of the last 10 years a notable change has been in the sus- 

 pension of work at the mines which supplied the ores for the 

 forges, or bloomaries. All of the bloomaries are idle, excepting 

 those belonging to the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company and the 

 Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company. The mines away from 

 railway or lake navigation lines have all been closed. The 

 capacity of production in the few mines which are in operation 

 has been increased greatly by their better equipment and 

 improved facilities for sending their ores to market. Another 

 characteristic of the region is the great size of some of the ore 

 beds. The great sheet, as it were, opened in the Chateaugay 

 slopes, the thick beds or shoots of ore at Mineville (Port Henry), 

 the great outcrops at Adirondack and the ridge of lean ore at 

 Little River, are almost inexhaustible, and, with the advent of 

 practicable, concentrating processes, all of them can produce cheap 

 ores and compete with other iron-ore districts of the country. 



The following chapter by Prof. J. F. Kemp gives the latest 

 information on the titaniferous magnetites near Lake Sand ford 

 and Lake Henderson : 



These great ore-bodies have claims to general interest, not alone 

 from their size and geological relations, but also because they 



* Swank : " History of the Manufacture of Iron in All Ages," Philadelphia, 1888, p. 106. 



